Muslims and Christians both fast and pray - do you know what you believe?

One of my best friends is a Muslim and she's heartsick over ISIS.  Isn't every sane person with a beating heart in their chest? But her beating heart is a bleeding heart, so she picked up the phone and called me after 21 People of the Cross had been killed.  From half a world away, in the desert heat of the middle east, she dialed my number. She can always dial my number.

When we said all we knew to say the line fell silent for a long few breaths, then she whispered, "This isn't Islam, how are they enlisting so many people? I don't understand." From the other end I could hear her shake her head. Then I reminded her of one of our first conversations, 22 years earlier.  We were sitting in our college dorm room, freshman, having only just met. A Muslim and a Christian, with Garth Brookes singing "I've got friends in low places" from the boombox between our beds. She watched me study my Bible, propped up by pillows, then said, "You know a lot more about your faith then I know about mine."

Casually I responded,  "Then you should figure out what it is you believe." She nodded and I suggested, "How about I tell you what I believe, and when you understand what you believe you can explain it to me?"

"Yes."

My 18-year-old self smiled and promised, "I'll be praying for you," and she said, "inshallah."

Over the next two decades we have done that very thing - sharing and listening over the phone, via social media, and even face to face.

Three years ago we met up in Las Vegas, specifically to see our old college friend Garth in concert.  Two days straight we walked and talked and sat and talked and ate and talked and sang and talked.  And all the while I prayed, always praying for my friend to know, deep down in her core, what she believes.

"I pray for you."

"Inshallah."

On the phone that fateful day I reminded her of our dorm room conversation, then said, "You didn't know very much about Islam when we met. Is it possible that most Muslims don't know what it is they believe?  But now there's someone telling them what they should do as Muslims and no one is stopping to think, because no one actually knows!"

More silence on the phone, and then she said, "Yes, maybe that's it."

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. (Hebrews 13:9)

Ramadan is an entire month devoted to prayer and fasting for Muslims throughout the world. Fasting, in fact, is one of the major pillars of my dear friend's faith.  But, just like Muslims, Christians can fast out of obedience, yet entirely miss the point.  Fasting is intended to draw us near to God that He might draw near to us.  Near to Him, tucked intimately into His nail scarred side, is where we begin to understand what we believe... because He speaks to us.

Remember how Jesus, on the day of His resurrection, walked for miles with two men upon the road? He explained everything to them - everything that had happened, from the prophets to that present day. (Luke 24:13-35)

Do you want to know what to believe? Draw near to Him.  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you, and walk beside you, and explain it all.

Drawing near is a journey; I dare say, drawing near to God is a pilgrimage. Muslims must go on a physical pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime, to the holy city of Mecca, the birthplace of their prophet Muhammad. Along the way they pray for enlightenment, the way Muhammad received his vision from Allah.

Christians, however, who are actively seeking to know God, don't need to venture anywhere except to their knees, where they can enter the holy of holies.  In the throne chamber of God Himself we can talk it all out.

 I'm reminded of Asheritah's story yesterday, how she had fasted so many times before, going anywhere spiritually. We can have the very same experience if we are not careful.

Draw near to Him - Then lean in close to hear from Him.

In this present age, with evil people outright deceiving mankind, we must know what we believe and in whom we believe.  If we are to be solid and grounded in our hearts and minds and behavior, we must be solid and grounded in what we believe and in whom we believe.  If we want to recognize falsehood and sin from afar and keep our ways pure, we must cling tenaciously to what we believe and to whom we believe.

An entire community of women is now 12 days into a 40 Day Sugar-fast.  As we fast and pray, testimonies are pouring in about the ways God is revealing Himself to each individual.  If you've been waiting for an invitation, this is it.  Join us! Join the Pilgrimage and draw near to God.  You can start the journey here. Our collective desire is to watch Strongholds in our lives crumble, that we might experience the strong hold of God's arms, and hear Him whisper clearly in our ears - Believe and be saved.

 Do you know what you believe?

... the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)

Do you know what you believe?

Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. (1 Corinthians 14:20)

Do you know what you believe?

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Do you know what you believe?

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesian 4:14)

Do you know what you believe?

 Join us in the journey!

Learning to fast - Learning to feast - a guest post

There are friends we have "In Real Life" and others that we've only met online.  In my world, Asheritah falls into the latter category. While I look forward to the day we meet together in a literal Living Room, (hers, mine, or the one that awaits in glory) today I get to welcome her into our virtual Living Room.  I know you'll be blessed to hear of her journey, learning to fast.

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I'm no stranger to fasting.

Growing up in a Romanian Baptist missionary family, we fasted when we needed God to take our prayer requests more seriously. In high school, I fasted from all food every Tuesday for two years, ignoring my anemia and my mother's concern because I was convinced that spiritual growth would only come to those who fast.

But I was doing it wrong.

Every time I fasted, I'd pretend I wasn't really hungry, telling myself that if I really loved God I shouldn't care if I ate or not. Though I tried to pray and read during my lunch hour, I was so distracted by thoughts of food that I couldn't focus. And wouldn't you know it, potlucks always happened on Tuesday, too! It seemed like the universe was conspiring against me.

So I gave up fasting altogether.

For four years, I didn't fast except for the annual Good Friday fast. Then, in college, I experimented with different sorts of fasting during Lent: I gave up meat one year, Facebook another, and sugar yet another year. And while those fasts taught me a lot about myself, my struggles, and my serious food addiction, they didn't draw me closer to God.

Stuffed with Good Gifts

It came as a surprise when my New Year quest to deal with my sugar tooth collided with my apathy toward God. Frankly, I didn't see the connection.

But as I searched Scripture verses to help me overcome my food addiction, God opened my eyes to see that I had been using food (specifically sweets) to curb the longings that should drive me straight to God. I wasn't hungering for God because I was satisfied with His gifts.

I picked up John Piper's book, A Hunger for God (which heavily influenced this post and my whole perspective on fasting), and was struck by his challenging words:

If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the wold. Your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great. - John Piper

That hit me like a slap across the face. I didn't desire God because I ran to food instead. And fasting from food didn't help because I used it to impress God with my spirituality, to spiritualize healthy eating, and, if I'm being completely honest, to show myself just how disciplined I could be.

For the first two months of 2015, I still struggled with my food addiction because I tenaciously refused to look at any food as "bad." If God gave it to us, we should enjoy it, right? But as Piper goes on to say,

In the heart of the saint, both eating and fasting are worship. Both magnify Christ. Both send the heart--grateful and yearning--to the Giver. Each has its appointed place, and each has its danger. The danger of eating is that we fall in love with the gift; the danger of fasting is that we belittle the gift and glory in our willpower. - John Piper

I had fallen in both of extremes, turning to food as my comfort as well as priding myself in how many hours I can go without eating. And in both cases, I missed the point: Jesus invites us to deny ourselves the pleasures of this world and feast on Him instead.

Turning Fasting Into Feasting

Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights before He began His public ministry (Matthew 4:1-11). It's a passage worth prayerfully reading and studying as you embark on this sugar fast. Mirroring Israel's 40-year wandering in the desert, Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and let him be hungry that He might test Him to see what was in His heart (Deuteronomy 8:2). Fasting is God's testing ground--it reveals the things that control us and the things in which we find the most satisfaction.

And it's in fasting that we recognize whether we rely on food or on God. That's what Jesus meant when He replied to Satan's invitation to turn stone into bread: "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). It wasn't an issue of eating or not eating; Jesus was pressing the issue of what He desired more than food, and that is God. Our souls were made to crave God, not food.

What I was missing all those years of fasting was a hunger for God. Instead of allowing my physical hunger to drive me to my knees in worship and confession, I tried to ignore it, willing myself to overcome temptation. But I was missing the point.

The point of fasting isn't just to fast from food; the point of fasting is to feast on God. Every time we fast we proclaim, with Jesus, "I live not by bread alone (or chocolate, or ice cream, or my skinny dolce latte) but by You, Lord. Even if I never again taste my favorite treat, I will be happy and fulfilled in You!"

Focusing on the One Who Satisfies

Fasting is still a struggle for me. But I've found that when I arm myself with the Word of God, I can recognize the gifts that seduce my soul and turn my attention back to God.

I've posted verses on my refrigerator door, in my pantry, next to my bed, and on my iPhone wallpaper to remind myself to feast on the Bread of Life. And slowly, ever so slowly, sugar's grip is loosening its hold on me as I choose instead to delight in God.

My appetite for God has awakened, and I'm more eager to spend time in prayer and worship than I was before. While my brain might still be foggy from the sugar detox, my soul is soaring to God's throne room. I'm finding that His presence sustains me when I face sorrow or disappointment; He handles my emotional highs and lows, giving me grace and mercy, joy and strength, things that can never be found in a candy bar.

He is everything I need, and I realize that when He is all I have.

As you fast, keep your heart and mind focused not on what you're giving up but on what you're gaining. Take captive those thoughts of donuts and salted caramel truffles to drive you to your knees and declare, "This much, o Lord, I want You! As my body craves sugar and my mind is consumed with thoughts of food, I want my heart to be consumed by a hunger for You!"

And as we pray and fast and meditate on Jesus, we will learn to feast on God. He will draw near to us as we draw near to Him, and we will find our true delight in the Lover of our souls. A pleasure no sugar rush could ever match.

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Asheritah helps overwhelmed women find joy in Jesus on her blog and through her books & art. She welcomes old and new friends to OneThingAlone.com to share a cup of tea and together pursue real intimacy with Jesus.

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Win

Social Media Fasting - because we want to care what God "likes" more than man

Fasting for 40 days is proving much more complex than I had imagined.  When we began this fast I expected to be grumpy, slow and short tempered for the first four days, I even anticipated a Spiritual awakening on the otherside of the fog.  What I did not expect, however, were the layers God would start peeling back.  All I did was give up sugar, and suddenly He started telling me how He wanted it all.

And so it is with great trepidation (I am not being dramatic one bit) that I publicly confess: Starting this morning I will be fasting from all social media until I have had ample time with the Lord in prayer and in His Word.

The tendency for me when I am busy is to read a quick devotional and say a prayer in the shower, then move into the rest of my day.  In and of itself that doesn't sound so awful, but then I recognized how much time I was able to extract from my busy schedule to check in with the "friends" who fill my social media threads. (Does this resonate with anyone else?)

Also, during the hours from dinner to the boys' bedtime I will plug my phone into the wall, that I might plug into those life-giving, flesh-and-blood relationships.

I was so diligent to set boundaries on my phone time when my children were little.  I barely knew it was there. Then again, it wasn't very smart back in the day. But somehow in the past year or two, I've been wooed by Siri's intelligence and constancy.  However, with her always standing at the ready, I've not sought The Lord to fill my days with His omnipotence - His always present nearness - His constancy.

Now here's the kicker, my phone is possibly more addictive than sugar -  and definitely stronger than the spiritual pull to know what the Lord of heaven and earth thinks in the early morning moments of dawn. But His is the opinion I want to "like" most of all.

So again I ask the question:

Join me?

I'm not asking for you to put down your phone all day long - just to put some healthy boundaries in place that you might draw near to the Lord for His filling during our forty day fast.  So often we simply transfer our addictions from one object of our affection to another, never fully turning to Him though we fast. 

If there is anything getting in the way of you returning to God, feasting on Him, abiding in Him... then cut it off and cast it far away.

Join me?

Won't you?

Join me?

Social Media Fasting

(If you are just joining us in this forty day fast series  - click here to start at the beginning.  The guidelines, links to posts and scriptures are all listed there - then put down your phone and learn to abide...  Join us?)

Fasting and eating disorders - a guest post

Today I welcome to my Living Room one of the sweetest friends I have ever known. Author Kelli Stuart offers us her wisdom, as we press in and press on in this 40 day Sugar-Fast.

It's Time to Live Free

I was twelve the first time someone made me aware of my body shape. A friend held up a magazine, and on the cover was a waif-ish model, for this was the early '90's, and very thin was very in. This friend of mine was also stick thin, her body shape so different from my more athletic build.

"This is what you need to try to get to," she said. "If you were thinner, we could share clothes."

That was all it took. The tiny seed of insecurity planted in my formative mind, and from that day forward, the image I saw in the mirror was a distorted version of my true self.

It wasn't a fast descent into anorexia and bulimia for me, but more of a slow fade. It started with the comment from my thin friend. This only got the wheels turning, and I began to limit my food portions because maybe she was right. Maybe there was an easy solution to my "problem."

A few months after that first comment, my gymnastics coach yelled at me from across the gym after a particularly rough training day on floor. "What's the matter with you today? You sound like a cow trying to tumble out there. Stop being so heavy on your feet!"

Looking back on it now, I don't think she was calling me fat. The lightest of gymnasts can sound heavy when not tumbling properly. But the seed had already been planted, and so my youthful heart translated her words to mean something different than intended, and the slippery slope on which I stood grew steeper.

I traveled a battled path with eating for a decade. From the ages of 13-23, I fought this fight, knowing in my heart that my relationship with food was an unhealthy one. I sought counsel, saw doctors, asked for prayer, and tried to beat it on my own. I starved myself for days. Binged and purged for weeks on end. Exercised through exhaustion, and tried to hide the depth of my problem as much as I possibly could.

I was ashamed of my inability to control myself around food, and I hated that when I looked in the mirror, I couldn't seem to see what everyone else saw.

I thought it would get better when I got married. Somehow, I thought the committed love of a man would free me of all insecurities because, after all, I didn't need to impress anyone anymore, right?

But it didn't get better and, in fact, my shame grew, because now the harm I did to my body directly affected my husband.

Finally, in early March, 2002, I'd had enough. I was so tired of fighting the battle, and I fell to my knees after another day of failing with food.

"Take it from me, Lord! I don't want this anymore! I just want to be done."

In that moment, I felt a power rush through me that I find hard to adequately explain. It's the only time in my life I've felt His touch in such a tangible way. It felt much like the image given to us of the woman with the issue of blood who reached out and touched Jesus' robe, and was instantly healed.

I felt healed. An inner repair happened in my body that was instantaneous, and I knew I had just been freed from the shackles that had held me down for so long. And so it was that I heard His voice clearly speak to my heart.

You have my healing. You're free. Now live free.

In the thirteen years since that beautiful moment in my Dallas apartment, I have lived in freedom from the bondage of an eating disorder. But this freedom and this healing in which I live comes with a price. Though I am free, I must live responsibly.

I am not participating in this 40 Day Sugar Fast. In fact, I don't ever participate in food fasts, because in my spirit I know that fasting from food sets me right back on that slippery slope. Asking me to deny myself food, even the simple act of denying myself sugar, is like asking a recovering alcoholic to step into a bar alone and pray.

This freedom in which I live rests on my ability to manage my eating, and the best way for me to manage my food intake is to simply not think too much of it.

I eat as balanced a diet as I can muster with four children in the house. Some days I eat well, other days I don't. But the Lord has given me victory over the stronghold of food, and so I live in that freedom each and every day.

I've tried fasting in the years since I was healed, but I've found that the second I decide to deny myself food, the more I begin to think about it, and it isn't long before I feel consumed. It's not healthy, and it threatens my freedom.

But there are other areas in my life in which I can step away. There are a lot of ways to fast, and so as I've watched Wendy take the helm on this 40 Day Sugar Fast, I've decided to take the role of co-pilot. While she fights for victory over sugar intake, and so many of you join her in that march, I am here praying over you all, faithfully asking the Lord to grant you victory in the strongholds that threaten to undo you.

As for me, I've chosen to step away from social media in the morning hours. This is my spiritual fast. I will not engage online until I have engaged with the Lord - until I've prayed for you, and for your victory.

There are still strongholds in my life that need to be broken. I long to live a victorious life as Wendy encouraged us all yesterday. But I will not live in victory by denying myself sugar. The Lord already broke that stronghold for me thirteen years ago, and I rest firmly in that victory.

The Lord has the power to free us all from the shackles that bind us. So in the fighting and the seeking, the fasting and the hours and hours of praying, may we have the courage and faith to reach out our hands and touch His garment, then relish in the flow of His healing power as He whispers His promise:

You have My healing. You're free. Now live free.

Resource:

If  you are desperate to help a daughter, sister or friend, who is wasting away under your watchful eye, Emily Weirenga's moving resource, Chasing Silhouettes: How to Help a Loved One Battling an Eating Disorder may be just the resource you need to love her through this fight.

More about today's guest:

Kelli Stuart is a writer and mom of four who spends most of her days shuttling children from one event to another in her smokin’ hot minivan. Kelli discovered blogging when her youngest was a newborn. She launched her first site, Minivans Are Hot, as a way to write about the often baffling and hilarious business of being a mother, knowing that if she didn’t laugh at life, she just might cry. She is the author of Like a River from its Course and co-author of Life Creative: Inspiration for Today's Renaissance Mom.  You can keep up with her over at KelliStuart.com — Kelli currently lives in Tampa, Florida where she tries hard to concentrate on balancing her love of writing with her desire to sit on the beach and read a good book.

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Strongholds or Strong Arms? Because you have a choice

Beneath the sprawling oak tree in the middle of the park, sat a woman on a bench, Her children played on swings nearby.  Pumping legs and happy laughter pulled her gaze, unsmiling.  She longed to laugh but felt hollow and worn, "God, why am I so defeated?" She stood there shaking from the flow of angry words that had poured out over her lips like a tidal wave. Whimpering she prayed, "Lord, why am I so angry?"

Driving home from having dropped them all at school, a mother climbs again under the covers of her bed and closes her eyes.  A tear rolls down her check , making a gentle thud upon her pillow.  "This isn't how it's supposed to be," the words come out like a cry.

Weariness and hopelessness hang heavy on the skin and deep within the soul of women today.  Moms who long to laugh, grandmas who can't shake their sadness, wives who miss the way they used to love. Many learn to self-medicate  - turning to sugar, to spending, to other relationships, to social media.  The lifting lasts for a while, but it never long enough, and on the other side of the momentary happiness is a deeper measure of grief.  Up and down a woman sails, just like children on swings.

That crazy cycle of up-and-down-and-up-and-down, was the impetus for our  40 day sugar fast. Now here we are, a couple of weeks in, and I have to say that my emotions are leveling out.  I am not only tasting flavors more clearly, I am tasting God's Godness in the midst of real life more clearing, and I am finding Him to be good.  Though my imperfections still rear their ugly heads, I have the wherewithal to renounce them quickly and choose instead to press into the power of God.  That's what this journey has been for me.  Pressing in and pressing on.

At the park, and in our home, and in my car... pressing into Him, like a refuge, like a stronghold.

God has been using my own discoveries to teach me faithfully from within, however, he is usig you all to teach me from without.  Hearing your testimonies, confessions, and praises are pushing me forward as I press on.

This comment, especially, has shaped the way I am thinking and praying through our fast.

"...with sugar, I feel happy - but without sugar, I feel free. I so often want happiness, and not freedom."

(Jaimie Bowman, author of Breathe: 31 Moments with Moms)

The other night my husband mentioned some family friends of ours who are struggling.  He sighed and said, "They aren't living victorious lives."  I'd never heard him use those words before, it's not part of our normal vocabulary, and I don't know if I've ever thought the words about my own self - this idea of living victoriously.

Over the next couple of days I continued to think on the phrase, like a picture, imagining what it would even look like and why we can live that way at all.  As I mulled it over this old hymn provided the soundtrack:

O victory in Jesus My Savior, forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood

I heard about His healing Of His cleansing pow'r revealing How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see And then I cried, "Dear Jesus Come and heal my broken spirit," And somehow Jesus came and brought To me the victory

(Victory in Jesus, by Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr.)

Wherever you are today, remember that there is Victory for those who are in Christ - victory both now and eternally.  "It is for freedom that He came to make us free."  He doesn't want us to bind ourselves again, to false gods that promise to make us feel better in the battle.  He is the Victor and the strongtower always standing at the ready.  Press into Him in your weakness and press on!

"Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."                     (1 Corinthians 15:57)

So why do we end up in the muck and the mire of sin and sadness again and again if our freedom has already been won?  Goodness, couldn't we spend a life time figuring that one out. But I think it comes down to this: Our Freedom has already been won, but it takes daily surrender to live like it's true!

Moment by moment, and challenge by challenge, temptation after temptation, hormonal shift after hormonal shift, living what we say we believe. And we believe in Victory through Christ

Let's claim what we proclaim.

Let's live what we profess.

Let's live victoriously.

If we truly believe that the all-powerful, radically loving King of Heaven and Earth chased us down in our sin and sadness to save and redeem us, and offers His power today to remake us... how would we live?  Defeated?  In bondage? Would we stay submissive to the strongholds that bind us today, bow down to false idols that entice?  Believe the lies?  Hold grudges of unforgiveness and let bitterness spring up from that gnarled root?

Oh the grace that should flow from lives that know Victory through Christ. Oh, how joy should mingle there. If God is who we say He is, and loves us with love everlasting, then the life we live should be one of victory and freedom!

"...with sugar, I feel happy - but without sugar, I feel free. I so often want happiness, and not freedom."

Caste off the ties that bind you today, my friends.  Whatever those ties may be, pull them out and cast them aside. Sugar is temporary fix - retail therapy is too - making us feel happy for a time.  But they are strongholds, holding us back from the true strength that allows us to live Victoriuosly in step with Christ.

Today my question is simple:

Do you want a stronghold, or the One who can hold you strong?

Yesterday's verse was "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8) How perfectly it transitions into the strong embrace offered today.

This I declare about the LORD:

He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;

he is my God, and I trust him. (Psalm 91:2) 

Held strong in the refuge that is God, when depression presses is.

Held strong in the knowledge of His nearness, when loneliness threatens.

Held strong in the safe embrace of His arms, when the enemy advances.  Bringing safety during a divorce hearing, a child's illness, a bout of anxiety over finances.

Held strong by Him.

Do not let yourself be consumed by strongholds today, but press into the loving embrace of a strong and saving God.

Press in and press on.

If sugar is not "your bag" - that thing that holds you captive - ask the Lord what is, and join us for these 40 days of bondage breaking resolve.

"For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’" (Deuteronomy 20:4)

Victory in Jesus,

My Savior forever...

Victory