The Joy of the Lord is My Strength.

Today began day 5 of the infamous Daniel Fast. I must say, it has been a 5 day rollercoaster ride to say the least. I admit I have definitely had my up's and down's. Yesterday was my biggest down. I nearly had a melt down at Chic-Fila alongside my one and a half year old nephew. It wasn't really the cravings for food that made me upset but how incredibly exhausted I felt. This made me realize how addicted my body is to sugar and caffeine. Shame, Shame. As I drove home last night nodding in and out of a wide awake sleep (where your eyes are wide open and you know you must be awake but you are really not conscious at all) I began to remember the whole reason for the Daniel Fast. Daniel chose to fast the Kings food to prove that His strength relied upon the Lord. At the end of the fast Daniel was stronger than the kings. Is God of the Old Testament not still the God of today? Of course He is! As this played over in my head I began to pray. I asked the Lord to give me the kind of strength that He gave Daniel. I expressed my weariness and exhaustion yet told Him I trusted in Him to supply my strength. This morning, I woke up renewed, refreshed, energized and ready to take on the day. I made breakfast, got the kids ready and took them to the park. At the park we ran laps up and down the playground, traveled to space and back and even swung through the trees of South America as tigers chased us. Whew. That was enough to wear anyone out, and to me it did. As we arrived back at the house and I started to make them lunch, my body was quickly shutting down. Fatigue entered and my body and I began to feel drained. Then I remembered the “praying” part of the fast. I quickly asked God to renew my strength and give me a supernatural energy that only He could provide. That was three hours ago and here I am writing this note, fully awake. He is so good, is He not? That is one of the greatest things I am learning from this fast. First, reliance upon the Lord is all that you need and second, to praise Him for every provision small or large. Before I laid the kids down for nap, I decided to do a small devotional with them. The devotion of the day was on thankfulness. It explained that whenever we are grumpy or having a spirit of complaining, we need to turn it around with thanks. I did this devotional with Jake because he had been giving me trouble laying down for naptime. I explained to Jake that instead of whining we need to be thanking. As I laid him down for nap, we thanked Jesus for sleep and I never heard another peep. Then, with all the renewed energy in me I sat down to study God’s word. I began with a devotional from Proverbs 31 ministry and low and behold it was about contentment and thankfulness. God has a funny way of showing us His face through children. That very devotion I was giving to my nap rebelling nephew was actually meant for me. I have struggled so much lately with finding contentment. God has moved me from a place of comfortableness to a place of uncertainty. My flesh has acted out in all of this and I have done nothing but complain and whine. Contentment has been the last emotion on my agenda. I am ashamed to admit, but all I’ve been doing is searching for more and daydreaming for better, as if God is not enough. Where is my praise? Where is my thanksgiving? Psalm 103 Says to praise God and “forget not ALL His benefits-for He forgives ALL your sins, heals ALL your diseases, redeems your life from the pit and crowns your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like eagles.” Wow, if that doesn’t humble me, then nothing will. God has for one, given us the ultimate gift of Salvation. It is free, undeserved and eternal. He rescued me from the pit of Hell I had placed myself in simply because He loves me and wanted to. I should wake up every morning and go to bed everyone night with songs of thanksgiving for just that alone. Next we have His whole “forgiving and forgetting our sins”. I don’t know about you, but if I had a dime for everyone….. Thank you Jesus we don’t have to review those. Then we have the fact that He “heals all our diseases.” Imagine if Christ wasn’t in control of our bodies. All the things we do to ourselves from driving wreck-less and eating terrible. Then you have the billions upon billions of germs we encounter every day. We should be dead, seriously. But God is so mighty he saves us from death, daily. Finally, Psalms 103 reveals to us that He crowns us with love and compassion and SATISFIES OUR DESIRES WITH GOOD THINGS. He goes beyond, beyond to bless us. That was only 5 lines in the whole entire bible revealing God’s blessings. Repentance has risen up in me and my heart swells with songs of thanksgiving at how truly amazing our God really is. Paul said he learned to be content. I think He learned by fully relying on God and acknowledging every minute blessing God bestowed upon Him, from strength to humility. This fast is teaching me who God really is and what He wants, and ridding me of who I am and what I want. I am thankful for that. What are you thankful for? I would love to hear the things God has done and is doing in your life. Let’s lift His name up and give Him some praise! Thanks and have a blessed day :)