Daniel Fast: REST for such a time as this...

Mind = Blown.

Before worship yesterday, I faced some hard truths with myself. Saturday evening before going off to sleep, I was thinking about what diet I was going to go on after finishing the Daniel Plan to lose any weight I had gained during this fast.

Then I started reading my book about purity and this line stuck out to me.

We trust in our own beauty before trusting God.

Uh yeah.  Listen I'm not 22 anymore.  I'm over 30 and when you're single at this point in your life, you figure you have to work twice as hard to compete with those who are younger in this marketplace.  It doesn't get easier for women as they age which is what my coaching business is all about.  I realized that part of the reason I'm so caught up in fitness is because of fear.  Yes I worry that if I get fat, then I'm dooming myself to a life that is fit for Hoarders.  Getting fat is failing.

You know I keep pointing out that example that I realized last year that it really doesn't matter because it's the light that will bring them to you.  I was 25-30  pounds lighter and the same stuff was happening. I still had the same struggles.

So if I say that I trust God for provision.  I'm usually thinking about money.  I don't think about other areas.  I don't think God will provide an attractive man.  I think I have to work in order to make that happen because I'm believing the world's hype that it's all about physical attraction.  Sure men are visual but I've even said that I wanted to be with a man who liked that I had substance, that I was smart, and ambitious.  I wasn't interested in a superficial man but yet I am behaving as if I do.  Putting all my efforts into trying to match a superficial ideal.

REST he says.

What does that mean?  It means to stop being so focused on how I look and all of this nonsense.  It means to commit myself to what I've been called to do.  I can rest on all of this superficial foolery.  

Does that mean I am going to stop working out and eating healthy?  No because I believe in being healthy mind, body, and spirit.  I love how I feel after working out.  I love the energy I get from life giving foods.  Rather than working out because I am afraid of getting fat or doing it because I think that is what I have to do in order to compete in the marketplace...I am doing it because I enjoy it.

Rest means that I will stop worrying about trying to attract a man.  Last year I had an experience where I was waiting for something to happen and I gave up because it just didn't look like what I was waiting for was coming.  Well I was so focused on what I was doing I didn't notice that it had come.  I just looked up and BAM!  There it was.  That was a powerful illustration and goes along with what Ingrid said last week.  I will be so focused and tuning out all the distractions and then I will look up and there will be the ram in the bush.

For Such a time this.

Yesterday Pastor Patrick spoke to us.  I tell you that there is nothing like someone who is going through the fire sharing their heart with you.  The reason they can speak so clearly to what God is doing is because they are seeing it play out in their lives as well.  I firmly believe you cannot teach what you don't know...which is why most preaching is shallow and like clanging symbols.  You can't teach people about God's faithfulness if you've never trusted him.

Anyway he took his text from the Book of Esther when Mordecai tells Esther "Who knows maybe you were made Queen FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS".  This morning during my time with the Lord he led me to read the whole book of Esther.  It's pretty awesome that all of what Haman planned to do to Mordecai ended up happening to him and he ended up on the pole.

Another observation is that Mordecai did a good deed that seemed to go unnoticed but when it was time God brought it to the King's memory and that got the ball rolling for deliverance.  That was an encouragement for me because at time it can seem that you're doing stuff and it all seems for naught but at the right time God will use it...and not just for your deliverance but for others.  Right now it seems I'm sowing seeds that are fruitless but I just know that many people will be blessed by these seeds.

Pastor Patrick also told us to REST and RELAX because yeah we may be in seasons that seem like "For Real?"  "Are you serious?"  "This can't go on like this"  but rest and relax because God has us just where he needs us in this process.  Transformation is all about process and if you hate the process, then you'll hate your life.

I have only completed 4 days of this fast.  Good grief.  I believe this will be a week of divine connections, appointments, and interactions that will have IMPACT for years to come.