Heart Alignment & Fasting 8/3/11

Recently I’ve seen some ugliness in my heart. Yesterday I noticed that I was seeking the love and approval from the people around me and not from the Father. This manifested itself through various forms: being loud and crazy in order to seek attention, showing off my rap and bible memorization, being over the top and energetic so people would want to be my friend etc… Being able to recognize these things allowed me to confess and submit them to the Father. I confessed the way that I sought man’s approval over His approval, and asked that He would realign my heart to be more like His so I could be closer to Him. His is the vine, the life source, and in Him is where I find grace and peace. Praise God that His spirit brought light to these things and brought conviction. It’s my desire to walk in His spirit and to practice being in the presence of God. I prayed that He would continue to refine me gently and would enlighten my heart to the idols and fat that get in the way of Him. Today I’m looking to the Father to meet my needs, for Him to whisper to me so I can hear His voice, and for His spirit to guide me so I can walk in His direction and not my own.

In order for me to get my heart aligned, I took my eagle’s nest hammock out to the park and spent 6 hours praying, reading, fasting, and meditating. While doing this the Lord gave me a revelation about the benefits of fasting.

Fasting is beneficial because it brings to light the habits in my life that become routine and presents me with an opportunity to break those habits so that I am no longer in slavery or held dependent by their nature. This could be physical, emotional, spiritual and mental habits.

-          Physical: things I eat; nothing will have mastery over me but the Lord. Gives me self control so I can honor the Lord with my body.

-          Emotional: breaking away from people and seeking solitude allows me to confess to the Lord where my emotional needs aren’t being met and how I look to people around me to fill them-- Via approval or attention. Fasting allows me to realign my heart with the Lords and seek emotional restoration from him

-          Spiritual: idols creep in and out of my life constantly, being able to break away from the routine of life allows me to quiet my soul and find rest in God’s presence. Practicing the discipline of being in God’s presence is crucial. I also free myself from the control of media, cultural pressures, and fitting in. Gives me a chance to reflect on the majesty of the Lord and be entertained by creation

-          Mental: breaking free from the lies that I hear and transforming my mind with truth. Being able to spend a chunk of quality time in God’s word (that’s living and active) allows truth to be written on the tablet of my heart and infused in my mind. Transformation begins here when I’m able to identify the lies that I here and counter them with truth because I know truth, because I’m being saturated with truth.

I would encourage everyone to pray about fasting in their own lives. Learning how to recognize the habits and idols in our lives enables us to confess them and have our needs met by the Lord. Just like it says in Hebrews 12 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”