“When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place. Matthew 12:43-45 MSG
This Sunday we will begin our 21 day fast January 10-31. Now many people don’t see the benefit in fasting or they just see it as a diet. But the true power is in what it is replacing. Whether we like it or not, we develop bad habits or even addictions to things that hinder our relationship with the Lord and our spiritual growth. The reason we miss them so often is because they are usually daily, innocent, even good things that can get out of control and begin to consume our time.
So what fasting does is replaces that thing with mediatating and fellowshipping with God. In these modern times we need to be honest that fasting from food may not be the most beneficial for us. Let’s face it there are so many things that drain our time with the Lord. Like the computer, TV, Social Media and scheduling too much in a day. It’s difficult to just decide we’re going to do those things less, mainly because thinking we can just will it never works. It’s the same reason we don’t keep New Years resolutions, we just decide we’re going to do things with out replacing the void they are leaving. And honestly replacing them with other empty things isn’t the answer either.
Todays passage reminds us that it isn’t profitable to try to change something without the transforming power of God through His Holy Spirit. See fasting isn’t about changing circumstances or situations, it’s about changing us. It’s about learning to listen to the Lord better. It’s becoming intentional about developing a deeper relationship with Him so we can better understand His will and His ways. It’s all about Him and making Him the center of our lives. It’s about when the fast is over whether it be food, which it is for me, or something in technology, or just the TV, realizing that we found we have dominion over everything in this world, they don’t have dominion over us.
It has been scientifically proven that it takes 21 days to break a habit, bad or good and replace it with something else. What better to replace it with than the resurrection power of Jesus Christ who sets the prisoner free. We encourage you to join us on our 21 Day journey. There will be helps here on the website as well as on facebook and of course you can reach out to us at info@efchurch.net. We look forward for you to hearing from you and letting us know you’re joining the journey!
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