Consume Not Folly

”Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I’m participating in a 21-day fast and concentrated prayer season along with my dear man. Warning: Please do not read that as a brag or any form of ‘good on you’ statement. I wouldn’t have thought it up on my own or even agreed to it except that I received a conviction of the Holy Spirit that this is something I can do to make a difference.

I don’t like being hungry daily until sunset. Just being transparent here, I’m counting the days until it’s finished. I have for 9 days fought my flesh, which is on fire with a sense of freedom from rules. My willfulness debates about the grace I’ve received through Jesus. The worst is that I’m tempted daily in ways that are not typical of me. I get impatient and irritable over ridiculous circumstances, which normally roll off my back with hardly a notice.

And why?

It’s not about food. It has not much to do with being hungry. Rather, the exposure has all to do with me wanting to do what I want when I want. It’s about control and who will rule and reign over all the operations of my life.

I have chosen, of my own free will, to agree with God about denying my flesh as I pray for others to surrender their lives to Jesus. It’s a powerful revelation that actually has only been understood by my nine days in.

Almost Half way.

The time when I most want to turn back, but too far in to pull the plug and miss out.

”Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.“
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How could I expect anyone else to turn from their flesh and surrender to Jesus if I’m unwilling to deny myself my own freedom to indulge in comforts of the flesh?

People in the multitudes living around me, related to me, and bound to me in Jesus are suffering. Families are falling apart, identities are fractured, bodies are ailing, and minds are bent on destruction because we live on a sinfully broken planet Earth.

People ask, “Why?” They want to know how God could let all this bad stuff happen.

These are good and valid questions. I ask too.

But I now ask my questions of God directly.

I tried my way of finding solutions to a better life with my own set of rules and values. It was an exhausting life that left me empty, and angry. At the bottom of the self-fulfilling pit I dug for myself, I wanted to disappear. And at the same time I wanted to rage against the One who could protected me from all the pain of destruction.

That was a sacred place. There are several sacred places of my life, in which my hunger and my thirst became unbearable. These are the undoing of self and flesh and willfulness. And as soon as I cried out in surrender, Jesus was already there with more than I needed. These are the moments of significant shifts in my thinking, and times of faith leaps on which I feed while I deny myself physical food for a short season.

I believe many people are in a similar place of hardship. Pit dwellers abound, sad and angry, desirous of rescue. And so I pray what others were praying for me.

Lord Jesus, come into our pits and do what only You can do. Come and do for us all in that You desire, and have You way. Be glorified in Your miraculous works, and rescue Your lost sheep. Amen.

”You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.“
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Live Love Brightly,

Lisa

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Linking up with some friends this week. Please read a selection of posts and share a few on your social media.

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