Before I start this blog, I wanted to explain a phrase I use a lot. I often say that "following Jesus is worth it." When I say this, I don't mean that following Jesus is worth it solely because it brings blessings into my life, although that is very true. It's not what God gives me that makes it all worth it. It's who God is and knowing Him. I promise you, nothing is greater than this.
Following Jesus is worth it because Jesus leads us along the pathway that causes our lives to glorify God and bless others. It's not about accumulating blessings or living a glamorous life. It's about forsaking your selfishness and your plans - abandoning it all to follow in the footsteps of the King of kings and the Lord of lords by the power of the Holy Spirit. Following Jesus is worth it because it's living life as God our Creator intended us to live - loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength AND loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is the BEST way to live this life God has given each of us.
And so it is worth it to follow Jesus because as we do, God makes us into the likeness of His Son and we live with the hope, forgiveness, peace, joy, and love that God designed for us to live in. We live free so that we can tell others about freedom in Christ. We live healed so we can tell others that God heals. We live with joy so that others can experience God's joy, too. God blesses us so that we can point others to Him, not just merely keep it all to ourselves. God gives to us so that we can give what we have received to others, all for His glory.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the beauty of following Him is not something we could ever keep to ourselves or ever should. And there is nothing greater in life than living in relationship with Jesus and telling others about Him. Nothing greater!
Back to the topic of this post: What I'm going to share right now has been on my heart for a long time. I pray that it blesses and encourages you wherever you are and whatever season of life you are in right now.
God is so good! All the time, God is so good! My heart is overwhelmed by God’s goodness. He is so faithful!
I am constantly humbled by His goodness in my life. It’s humbling because while I often dream about what God has in store for my future and what He may have in front of me, even my greatest hopes pale in comparison to the reality of His overwhelming goodness in my life. Even my most extravagant imaginings of His goodness are so small. So small!
Yet this doesn't mean that every season is easy. January this year was kind of a harder month of me. January is probably my least favorite month of the year. I love starting a new year and the expectation of everything God will do, but coming off of Christmas is hard for me. I’ve always gotten kind of sad each year when we have to take down the Christmas decorations and say goodbye to the holidays. (I really love Christmastime). And January can often be so dark. The days are still short, the sun doesn't shine all that often here in the Pacific Northwest, and worst of all, you can’t listen to Christmas music anymore. On top of this, in my heart, I felt God calling me to a fast that month.
So here I am fasting through one of the darkest times of the year. I don’t fast to earn brownie points with God or to sound super-spiritual. I have learned that while mysterious, God uses fasting to move powerfully in our lives. Jesus taught us to fast and that when we do, He will reward us (Matthew 6:18). Jesus also teaches that we shouldn't let others know when we are fasting, but keep it between ourselves and God. Fasting is between us and God; it's not for anyone else. I share all of this because God has changed my life through the spiritual discipline of fasting and I've learned this: Denying ourselves and humbling ourselves through fasting before God is so vitally important to our spiritual health. That's why I'm writing this post. I have to share what I have learned, not to glorify myself but Him. I pray in Jesus' name that what I share here blesses and inspires everyone who reads this.
This time last year, I completed what is called a "Daniel fast" (fruits and vegetables; no meat, sweets, or bread) while on spring break. Fasting during spring break – not exactly the plans I had in mine for my vacation time during my first year of teaching. But I knew in my heart that God was calling me to fast. So I fasted. I've learned to obey, even when I can't see all of the reasons why. God's ways are best.
Again, I want to emphasize that I didn’t really understand what the purpose of it all was, but I knew God had commanded me to do so during that time, so I obeyed. Obeying God is always the best choice. You might not see why in the moment, but you will look back one day and understand. And that's exactly what happened here.
Months later, it all became clear. I say this with no hesitation: that fast from last April made it possible for me to start writing my book last July. What had always seemed impossible suddenly became possible. Again, I’ll say that a lot of it is mysterious. I don’t know everything about fasting, but as a follower of Christ, I know that God honors our obedience – following His Word without question – and our faith in Him – trusting in Him even when everything is not clear, and especially when it’s not clear. (I share more about this fast in my book).
This past January, I again knew in my heart that God wanted me to fast. So I did. I had seen how God used that special time last April to prepare me to write my book and I knew that He was calling me to spend more time relying on Him through fasting.
It wasn’t easy this time; the gloomy weather and dark nights made it even more difficult as I was fasting. I constantly had to stay in the Word and encourage myself that God was at work even when it seemed like nothing was happening.
Side note: When it seems like nothing is happening in your life – if you believe in Jesus and are walking in obedience – this is often when God is doing the most. I promise you. It's often the darkest before dawn. We can’t see it all, but we don’t need to; we just need to trust that God is good, loving, and faithful. He will always see us through and His lovingkindness will always astound us! God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. This isn't always fun, especially for people like me who like to plan ahead.
But I don't need to have control. I just need to surrender. God is in control. God can see my future, so I don't have to! And even more, God has taken care of all of my yesterdays, so there is no need to worry about tomorrow!
Listen to this: The day - I’m telling you - the exact day I broke my fast this winter – I saw God move in powerful ways. Something that I have been praying about for years, God solved in one week! Less than a week, really! A friend of mine who has always lived half-heartedly for God suddenly said enough was enough and they were going to finally trust God with all of their heart. They wanted to live for Jesus. They were sick of their compromise and living in disobedience and repented to God for everything they had done. Years! I had been praying for years for this friend and the day I finish my fast, my friend tells me that they are finally ready to surrender everything to God and live for Jesus. Praise the Lord! No one can tell me that my fast and that friend’s breakthrough are unrelated. I know that God was working during my time of self-denial and moving mountains while I prayed, fasted, and spent time with Him.
Seeing how God has drawn my friend back to Him is nothing small to me. It is absolutely amazing and I give God all of the glory, honor, and praise. I am in awe of God. God can reach any person no matter how impossible or how long you think it will take. Don’t stop praying and fasting for those you care about to return to the Lord!
If that wasn’t enough, God outdid Himself again! Around this same time after my fast, I attended a conference and met some people who invited me to their church. I am now going to this church and attending their Bible Study for young adults. For a while now, I have been praying for God to lead me to the church He wanted me to join and to help me find a church community like this one. God has exceeded all of my expectations! I am so grateful for this church. In such a short amount of time, this church already has been such a blessing and encouragement to my life and I pray that God uses me to be a blessing and encouragement to everyone at this church. Praise God! Wow!
Two things I had been praying for years about and after my fast – both, not just one, but both! – God answers both of these prayers within days of one another! Wow! Yes, there are still many dreams in my heart, many prayers I am waiting on, many things I am trusting God with, but I cannot help but be so thankful and grateful for all that God has done and is doing right now in this season of my life. His faithfulness is so perfect!
I write all of this because I want to encourage you. There might be some dark seasons, but God will shine His light soon enough. Don’t allow your heart to become discouraged; stay in faith and in God’s word and you will see the answers to your prayers. God’s timing, I tell you, is so perfectly perfect and His grace is overwhelming. He knows what you need when you need it. He is aware of all that concerns you, all the details of your life, every second of your days. He knows and He cares. God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20)! Just because you have to wait doesn’t mean that God is unaware or that He is not concerned. He is ALWAYS working and He uses our obedience, faith, prayer, and fasting to accomplish greater things than you can ever imagine in less time than you could ever expect.
Two questions for you to end this post:
1.) Is God calling you to fast right now?
I recommend Jentezen Franklin’s books about fasting. They really prepared my heart for my fasts. Plus, they opened my eyes to the importance of fasting and the absolute necessity. It’s not something that we should think of as optional, but essential as we follow Jesus. Pray and ask God if He wants you to fast from something right now and what that is. Maybe it could be a Daniel fast or fasting from social media. Ask God to guide you to the fast that He wants you to do and to give you wisdom. Don't worry if it's your first time fasting and you have a lot to learn. The Holy Spirit will guide you. God will always help you when you choose to obey Him - one of my favorite things about God! He always helps us follow Him! People have this idea that it's hard to follow Jesus. Yes, it's a narrow road, but we walk it with Him. And that's a billion times easier than walking the broad road without Jesus. Don't listen to the world; it's harder not to follow Jesus than it is to follow Him. Brokenness, sin, destruction, selfishness - those things all characterize a life without Christ. Jesus saves us from all that. Praise Him!
2.) Are you expecting anything from God right now?
Have you been praying for years about something? Have you given up on someone or something because it seems too impossible or they seem too far gone? Have your mountains become bigger than your God? Fasting humbles us and reminds us of our total dependence on God. We are nothing without Him, yet in the day-to-day life, we can easily forget this and live out of our own strength. Have you been living in your own abilities and forgotten to turn to God for help, wisdom, strength, and everything you need? Do you expect God to do the miraculous in your life or have you just settled for an ordinary life? Are the dreams for your life actually really small and ones which you don’t have to rely on God to achieve? If they are, I can guaranteed that God wants to stretch you to believe Him for more than just getting by. He always dreams bigger dreams for us than we do and His dreams are the best. Do you need to surrender your little dreams to God and ask Him to fill your heart with the faith and fill your life with the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can achieve His dreams for your life? Dreams that will glorify Him greatly and bless others abundantly; dreams that allow you to know Jesus intimately.
I promise you, you won’t regret saying yes to God. Yes, it will mean that you don’t have control and you don’t always know what’s coming next or what God is going to do or where He is going to lead you.
But life is an adventure! It’s not meant to be lived safely or timidly. God doesn’t call us to easy goals, but ones that require that we depend on Him with all that we are so that He gets all of the glory. Everything I have achieved, anything good or beautiful in my life is all because of Jesus Christ. And I am so aware of it. To pretend otherwise would be completely and utterly ridiculous. To God alone be all of the glory.
Living this way requires radical faith in God, but it is worth it. I promise you. This is how we are all meant to live.
God doesn’t just want you to say a prayer to Him so you are saved and go to heaven one day. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again so that we could have much more than that - abundant life here on earth! We don’t have to struggle through this life in our own strength and wisdom, barely getting by and striving for little dreams. God wants to tell an amazing story with your life. One of unshakable faith, uncompromising character, and His great glory.
Will you let Him?
I just completed another fast this month. Who knows what God has in store? I’m not sure, but I know that He is moving more mountains! And my expectations are higher than they’ve ever been. God has shown me His power and might in bigger ways than I have ever seen. But I know that this is just the beginning. And I know this for sure: I expect God to continue to surprise me with His greatness again and again for the rest of my life. And I don’t ever want to get used to it. I always want to be in awe of Him and never put any limits on what He can do.
I have my dreams, I have my plans, I have my goals – God will surpass them all. And that's awesome.
I am excited to see the good things God will do in my life and in yours!