Journaling a Review of How God is Working This Week | 01
AUTHOR: Holy Scripture
Read:
Read Psalm 1 and consider how it describes someone who meditates on the wisdom of Scripture.
Focus:
Each Saturday we will take time to journal and reflect on what God is teaching us through fasting. Engaging in spiritual disciplines without the work of reflection will only set us up to forget what we’ve learned. With that in mind…
Take 10 minutes to reflect:
- How did it feel when you fasted this week?
- What surprised you about fasting?
- What is God teaching you through fasting?
- How is God growing your framework for wisdom and the wise life?
Pray:
Reflect on your list and express your gratitude to God in prayer for how He is growing you by the power of the Spirit through Scripture, fasting, and prayer.
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Week 1 of 7 Fasting
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How did it feel when you fasted this week? I was hungry.
What surprised you about fasting? I was surprised that I participated. I hadn’t committed to fast, but I was in a rush on Thursday morning and didn’t have time to eat breakfast or pack a lunch. So I had a little support to participate =) It turned out ok.
What is God teaching you through fasting? The hunger was fine. Fasting wasn’t that inconvenient. But I don’t like fasting. Or giving things up. There’s probably something deeper to explore here… Maybe it’s unclear to me what there is to gain, or that there’s no guarantee of an epiphany while fasting.
How is God growing your framework for wisdom and the wise life? Wisdom looks like leaning on God and trusting His ways instead of my own (Proverbs 3:5-6). And meditating on God’s Word (Psalm 1). There’s more peace and happiness available to me than I often take hold of.
My answers to questions 3 and 4 may be related…. Perhaps what I don’t want to do is have an attitude of, “God, I’m giving you this time and space to do whatever You want, and I can accept silence or nothing.” Rather, my attitude is more like, “If I’m not getting something, I don’t want to do it.” Maybe the latter isn’t exactly trusting God or wise living. Worldly wisdom says, “if you’re not getting something out of it, it’s foolishness to do it.” The former attitude actually honors God as Lord and King more.
I groaned when I learned that our next series would be on fasting. But I’m seeing this week that there’s much I can learn and grow in here (and I’m glad every day’s reading hasn’t been on Ecclesiastes)
Justin, thanks for your transparency. I, too, fasted out of circumstance on Thursday. I needed to do a blood test, and they asked me to fast prior to the test. It felt very inconvenient that I could not get in for the test before noon, thus forcing me to fast for half of a day. Such a reminder that I really do not live my life ‘going without’ very often. I was hungry. And probably irritable (sorry mom, sorry co-workers). It was harder than I thought, mostly because I had to keep reminding myself I couldn’t eat. Eating is not just about being hungry, but it was also a habit. Eating is part of my morning routine, yet, fasting was doable.
Thanks for your thoughts here, Justin. It helped me collect mine as well.
I just want to share that first of all, I contemplated fasting that day and started to and then just decided not to. So I did not glean the benefit of the discipline. I will journal about that lack of discipline and what I will commit to going forward. Second, I’m super thankful for people sharing on here like Justin and Jeannie to see honesty and transparency from other believers. Thank you!