Yesterday I was pretty devoid of energy and not able to focus well on anything. Hence, no blogging. But by grace, today I felt better for a large portion of the day. I'm praying for God to strengthen me even more for tomorrow - it's my first day of teaching at my new job, and I am so excited to meet all my violin students!
Today the song "I Need Thee Every Hour" has been constantly on my heart. God kept bringing it to me over the past few days. Although I have been abundantly blessed by my Father with good gifts, there are definitely things that make me feel my continual need for Him and remind me to rely on His faithfulness. Nothing makes me feel that need more than conviction - when I can feel in my soul that I have grieved the heart of my Heavenly Father by disobeying his Spirit's guidance. But as I've been fasting, I have felt so physically challenged that I have felt constantly my need for God's grace in both a spiritual and a physical way.
My college roommate gave me a copy of Donald Whitney's "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" a few years ago. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I had never even peeked at the chapter on fasting until yesterday. Whitney encourages the believer to engage in fasting, but with a definite purpose in mind so that it can actually be of spiritual benefit. He describes ten purposes for fasting. One of them is "to humble oneself before God." This struck a particular chord with me today - fasting as "a physical expression of humility before God...[expressing] humility before the Lord in every activity throughout the day by fasting." King David describes doing exactly this in Psalm 35 - "I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting." As we fast and feel our hunger, both for daily bread and for the Bread of Life, we should be clothing ourselves in humility before God. Fasting is not a statement of prideful piety which seeks to earn God's favor for our sacrifice. Fasting is an outward acknowledgment of our weakness and our neediness, in which God's strength can be made more perfect than we know!
No comments:
Post a Comment