Monday, January 7, 2013

Provision, Confession, and Idolatry

I'm coming to you halfway into day two of our 21 day fast, and I am loving my deeper connection with Jesus.  It was awesome to wake up with a smile on my face on a dark Monday morning!  I've enjoyed the Daniel Fast so far as well.  Good thing I like veggies!!!  Yesterday, we ate my homemade oatmeal bars I showed in my last post for breakfast with some unsweetened peanut butter.  They are more delicious than I expected.

I had to work yesterday at a bridal show, so I loaded up some Daniel Fast approved snacks just in case I got hungry (which I did), but to my happiness, there was a whole display of fresh fruit and roasted veggies I got to eat for lunch.  God is so awesome in His provision!  It's been a while since I worked at the bridal shop, and I knew I had a check waiting for me, but when I went to work yesterday, I had two checks!  Remember how I prayed for provision for our massive grocery bill?....well there you go folks!!!  Last night, we made spaghetti squash and tomato sauce, which I am enjoying now on my lunch break.  Michael made black bean and butternut squash chili for tonight's dinner, and I made homemade salsa and hummus for some more snacks.  As you can see, you must enjoy cooking unless you want to eat fruit and carrot sticks for 21 days!

During my devotion time yesterday, I read about beginning the fast with humility and with a spirit of confession.  We cannot expect to grow closer to God with unconfessed sin.  He is waiting for us to confess so he can pour out his grace and mercy and renew us.  I admit this is hard for me to accept sometimes because it's difficult to examine my sins and faults, especially those that I commit over and over and over again.  I also struggle with guilt and find it hard to accept God's mercy and grace.  It's my  hope to become fully accepting of his love and understand that I cannot work for his mercy.  I already have his grace.

Today's devotion was equally moving.  Teaching on idolatry, I read the story in Genesis 22 when God asks Abraham to sacrifice His one and only son.  Can you imagine faithfully trusting God and loving Him to the point that you would sacrifice your son?  I don't think I could do it!  God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac so Abraham would not get to the point of loving Isaac more than God. Though there are people and things we love so much in this world, we are commanded to love God more.  This is a difficult lesson for me.  I know I idolize people and things.  We all do.  I love Michael, my family and friends, Scarlett, food, travel, shopping (the list goes on) so much that I would never want to give them up, but I am reminded that everything is His not ours.   These are not mine to covet.

Tonight, I start my yoga class with my friend Baylee.  I will munch on some carrots and homemade hummus to fuel me up...do you really need that much fuel for yoga?  It's just an excuse to eat :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

1 comment:

  1. Hi! I'm in Mobile not too far from you! I was wondering if you did anything special to your tomato sauce. I tried having "spaghetti" with whole wheat noodles, sauce, and tofu. It was NOT good! lol I forgot how tart tomato sauces could be. I'm doing the Daniel fast too and I plan to try the oatmeal bars this week =)

    ReplyDelete