Take A Break

Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting.

FASTING IS CONSIDERED a spiritual discipline. It provides a time to focus on God so he can focus your life. It is a choice to yield your life to God’s voice by making a space for him.

“Blessed is the one who does this—the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil” (Isaiah 56:2, NIV).

It isn’t just food that can rob our time and our hearts from God. Today’s world provides ample opportunity for distractions. Try a unique fast like skipping your favorite TV program, and have a quiet time instead, or take a mental health day and skip the housework and laundry or your normal work routine. Or skip the chocolate, cola, or coffee that seems to have a habitual hold on you.

You might fast from your talk radio or music station in the car as you drive and pray instead. Because I value the discipline that I gain from a fast, I routinely ask myself a few times a year, Is anything tugging my heart away from God? Is there some action or habit that has taken residence in my life that has a strong command of my time, talent, and thought life?

Anytime you break the routine and give God the time, he is faithful to meet you there. Which would you like to try: a fast from food, an activity, or a habit?

Use a quiet time this week to try something that will give you a change of discipline.