Day 13
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Well, you are just over half-way through the fast. How does it feel? Are you killin it and remaining faithful to your fast? Or, are you struggling and having as many bad days as good? Either way, let me help you recalibrate for a moment. It’s vitally important that we keep our eye on the ball. What matters to God is not the self-discipline that you model with a faithful fast. What matters to Him is that you are making room for Him to speak - room for Him to do a deeper work in your heart and mind. This is a very good thing!
God has made it clear, in the passage above and in dozens of others, that He cares far more about how well you love others than how religiously observant you are. He tells us to leave our gift on the altar, for example, and go reconcile, if necessary, with an enemy. He says that if we do not love our brothers and sisters, whom we can see, then we cannot love God whom we cannot see.
You know, any time someone asks me how they could pray for me, I give the same answer: “pray for my kids”. If someone loves on my kids, I genuinely feel like they have loved on me. I think God feels that way, too.
So, if you’ve fallen off the fasting wagon, get back on! If you’ve been faithful so far, keep it up! Either way, make sure that loving others is part of your journey. Otherwise, no matter how spiritually sacrificial you are, without love you are nothing more than a loud, obnoxious noise in God’s ears.
Today, reflect on this:
What one thing could you do to amplify your fasting efforts and experience? How could you make even more room for God to move in you?
Using love as the only measure, how is your fasting going on a scale of 1-10? How might you improve?
Pick someone in your Oikos (people with a front-row view of your life) and love on them today. Pray over them and reach out with encouragement.
Ask God to reveal any deep wounds or barriers that keep you from loving others more effectively. Reflect on the people that it is hard for you to love. What do they have in common and how can God help you move forward?