Sunday, September 30, 2007

Big Tea Eschews the Tea

Today at church our pastor challenged us. He went on to explain the 10, 10 at 10 plan for us all to adopt. The plan is to pray for 10 minutes for the next 10 days at 10am and pm. We are all to join together asking God to help our design team find favor with a developer for an area in North Dallas that we would like to build in. This was not much of a commitment for my wife and myself, we pray nearly every night for this anyway, just adding a few minutes in the morning as well won't be a problem. The hard part came next when he went on to explain that he also wanted us to fast during this time as well. Since he is a long-time participant in this kind of thing he will fast from most all food but he is asking us to join him at the level at which we feel led to.

I need to step out a second and explain the need for fasting as presented to me. The way I see it, this form of abstinence is supposed to help with our attempt to connect with God on some level. By denying yourself in some area we will in fact make ourselves more open to God's will or to hearing "God's Voice". It seems to be a form of sacrifice to show God how serious you are about petitioning him in this proposition, we are not just pulling up to the God ATM for a withdrawal, we are doing this as a form of worship.

Back to the proposition; I have never practiced any form of Fasting so I have no idea how well I can do at this. My wife and I have both decided to sacrifice our daily tea for the next ten days in order to honor this idea. Now I know it does not sound like much but consider that I usually drink from 88 to 176 ounces of tea a day. This is unsweetened tea of course, who wants that many calories. All in all I think this will be a hard and sacrificial thing and I do believe that is the intent here.

2 comments:

CrossPointeDave said...

You guys rock! Thanks for taking on the challenge! Day one of my fast is nearly in the books! It's more difficult than I have experienced before.

Robin said...

i'll be praying with you as you fast - it's a worthwhile and God honoring thing to do. Very cool!