Our lead pastor, Chris, invited some peeps @ Ridge Church to "fast" with him for 10 days.
I'm in & excited about what God will do in me during these 10 days. Chris directed us to pray/fast about 2 things over these 10 days:
1) That we would be spiritually hungry - driven to God for satisfaction like I'm driven to food.
2) For God's Glory. Specifically for God to get glory through Ridge Church. Chris has said from the beginning that he only wants Ridge to be a platform that God would stand on to spread His renown.
I want to use these 10 days to develop my "Theology of Fasting" - I didn't have much of one before starting this. And I think it will help me immensely to pour out my heart from this journey here on renown. I started A Hunger for God by my homeboy Piper & will be posting some stuff I learn from that book here @ renown.
(Now, I just read in Matthew 6 that Jesus said not to be a hypocrite & jack up your face when you fast so that everyone will know. I just want to learn what God thinks about fasting. And part of this whole experience for me is having an outlet to process my thoughts. + I am far from trying to make myself look good here... I'm not even gonna do the real thing for much more than 1 day. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday, but later today I'm gonna have to eat something (because currently my head is exploding & I may pass out any second), so for most of the 10 days I will be doing a "no meat & only water" fast. haha, which because of the carnivore that I am, I haven't really been able to think of many things to eat that aren't meat. seriously. I'm sure I'll get really creative these 10 days!) Anyway, there is no better way for me to try to figure this thing out than to talk about it.
Because of this "fast" my mind has not been able to break from thoughts about God's absolute renown in my life. that's an amazing thing.
Every freaking second this extreme hunger in my stomach is forcing my passion to rise up in me and a hunger for God to be glorified! I want it to remind me that as bad as I want food right now, I want God MORE... I want Him to use me to make His name famous in this world!
I keep shouting to myself "I've gotta have some food!" & it's an instant reminder that I want my constant shout to be "I've gotta have YOU, God." He is better than food. He is better than anything.
Later today when I down some nasty non-meat food it will be so satisfying to me! It will quench my hunger. My belly will be fully satisfied. It will be amazing.
BUT, it will be a reminder to me that God is the only One who can satisfy me fully. No thing, no food, no person, no lifestyle, no comfort, no accomplishment, no amount of money, no ANYTHING will ever fill me up & satisfy me except for God!
And when I satisfy my hunger fully in Him - He is most glorified in me!
(& now I'm off to find something vegetarians eat, haha...)
