Fasting Firsts : My Fasting Expericience

I fasted for the first time on October 23, 2014. I remember my pastor saying that previous Sunday that if we were not doing the corporate fast we needed to start. With that being said, I realized it was time to submit to God in a way I had never done before. When the day of the corporate fast came I had the support of my mom and dad and decided to fast from food as well as social media. This meant no Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat.

I chose to fast from social media because the time I spend on it could be used to connect with God. Social media highlights the positive things in other people lives and can be hard to look at if you’re having a bad day. I wanted to ultimately be able to not be so focused on others or compare my joy to the joy of others. 

I think many of us fall victim to this. We see other people having fun, drinking, partying, getting their dream jobs, going to basketball games, and we’re not. We see certain people getting all types of attention on Twitter while we’re hardly getting a text back. We start to think that something could be wrong with us. 

We then begin to make an effort to make our lives look fun just to please man. We start to have this competition in our heads with other people. People we hardly know. We start living for others, instead of for ourselves. 

As I got ready to go to work  I did as I do every morning. Get dressed, do hair and makeup. My makeup wasn’t right and time for me to leave was getting closer. I got more irritated with each passing minute. Then I heard God say ‘What are you doing?’

Why was I focusing this much on eyeliner and concealer?

I realized that the only reason I wore makeup to work is because during my break I usually took a selfie to post on Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. Why had I been doing that? What was I doing?

I was trying my hardest to compete with other pretty girls via social media.

As I washed off the makeup I realized that I had been living for others and not for God. It had become so routine, I didn’t even notice it. 

Sometimes the enemy gets us so focused on what others think of us instead of what God thinks of us. Matthew 6:1 tells us to be cautious of this. It says “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

I know none of us are perfect and sometimes we can’t help but look at how someone else is living but remember that God has blessed you. You are special. There is no one else in the world that is like you. You are beautiful for you were created in His image. Live for God and everything will fall into place.

Today I pray that you know you are loved and that you are one of a kind. I pray that God gives you the strength to give up the thing that controls you. Submit to Him and allow for God to be number one in your life. Amen.

Ezra 8: 21, 31

21. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

31. Then we journeyed from the river Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was over us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes by the way.

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