Daniel Fast -Day 6 Devotional -“fighting with God”
The weekend is upon us and for some of us that might be a little unnerving when it comes to fasting. When we get out of the schedule groove sometimes it’s easy to cave, so to speak, so, some might be a little fearful with messing up or breaking their fast and then feel all bad and down on themselves for being weak and not disciplined enough.
I hope this doesn’t describe you, but if it does rest easy…remember, its’ about grace. I am not giving you a license here, because I really think you should be strong, but if you mess up, it’s ok, it’s not the end of the world, just start over by the next meal.
Maybe it’s easy for me to say this because I ate a steak tonight!! I know, I know…but, there’s always a”but” right, we knew going into this fast that tonight we were going to have to make an exception. you see today was my Father’s 83rd Birthday, so we celebrated by having all our family up cooked some steaks, laughed, prayed, and had a great time. It will go in the memory books for a lot of reasons but one biggie is that my sister was here and all her family. We don’t see her much, and there is history there that has made it that way, but we were together tonight. It was great!! And oh, yeah, the steak was great too!! 🙂
I said all that to say there are these times like the one Jacob experienced in 32:28, where He was fighting with God. We too often fight with God and sometimes these fights are very hard things to deal with and sometimes they are just simple things of life. I really felt this week like I was fighting with God about breaking the fast tonight. But I realized it was ok. I will not be judged, God is not disappointed with me, no more than going off to work one morning without prayer and reading my Bible, which I do sometimes. I am not happy about it, nor proud about it, but it happens. All these are spiritual disciplines, not legalistic religious rituals. It is a matter of my heart.
I believe that fighting with God can be a good thing. It makes us work through motivations and reveals heart issues, which all hopefully will draw us closer to Him and make us love Him more. Kind of like Jacob experienced, He did not want to let go even to the point of demanding a blessing. I think through the rest of the fast I will experience more communion with God and draw close to Him and I hope I have to wrestle some, ultimately it will draw me closer to Him. I hope you will too. Don’t be afraid to fight with God. You understand what I mean don’t you? I don’t mean argue with Him, push and demand your rights and wants, but simply just to wrestle through issues you are dealing with and all with a perspective that He is God and He is your Lord and you are His servant, desiring to do His will so much that you are willing to roll up your sleeves and work through whatever issues exist in your heart and life.
I hope you have a great weekend! see you tomorrow at worship!!
LEARNINGS TO SHARE... 
January 17, 2010 at 1:10 am
That was awesome to read, that Debbie was there praise the Lord for that. Thanks for being so real with your wrestle. I have stood fast through the weekend and being away. It has been a blessing.