I recently completed a 40-day fast… well, I actually finished it a few weeks ago, and in short, it was one of the most beautiful and challenging experiences of my life.
On September 7, my pastor called a church-wide 5-day fast and asked those who felt led to join. The day before, a friend who’s more like a sister invited me to join a prayer line with a prophetess, and at the end of the broadcast, she asked everyone who tuned in nationwide to join her on a 3-day fast the following week. So, me being me, I was like, “Bet, I’m just gonna fast all the way through,” because I knew if I took a weekend break, I wouldn't be participating in the second fast the following week.
Well, imagine my surprise when I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to fast for a whole 40 days, three days in.
I remember when He first said it. I was like, “I don’t know about that Lord. I just told You the other day I felt like my kidneys were hurting.” Immediately, I heard the Holy Spirit say to make me some dandelion tea. And since I had been working on being obedient quickly in this season, I got up and went to the cabinet to make some. I was so surprised when I grabbed the box of dandelion tea, and it read: Kidney detox. I literally couldn’t do anything except laugh and tell the Lord, okay. Something in me just knew that if He had truly called me to do this fast, then He would surely give me the grace to get through it.
And that’s my word for you today: Grace.
It wasn’t until this 40-day fast that I truly began to understand what Jesus meant in 2 Corinthians 12:9 when He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I feel like in the church we talk a lot about the grace that covers us; however, we don’t speak much about the grace that carries us. Both are beautiful and necessary; however, the grace that carries requires us to take an additional step: surrender.
What I’ve found is that He always, if we allow Him to, carries us. It’s just that the more we surrender to Him, the clearer we see it. The more we release control, the more He guides us. The more we take His yoke, the less burdened we feel by the things we have to carry. The more we admit our need for Him, the more we truly allow Him to be God.
I’ll be sharing more about this experience as the Lord allows it. Today, I simply want to ask you:
What is it that you need to surrender today?
What’s been burdening you?
What is it that you’ve been trying to control, but if you’re honest, if one more thing happens, you’ll simply fall apart?
Today, I encourage you to rest in the sufficient grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is ready and willing to carry you.
If you’ve made it this far, today I pray that El Roi, the God who sees, makes Himself known to you today. I pray that every need that you have is supplied according to the riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I pray that you surrender in every area, so that He may carry you fully into what He has planned for you. In the name of Jesus, Amen.