Stumbling Through My Fast

I have been sick with this awful cold for the past four days. It is very hard to continue to fast when you are sick. I have prayed for wellness and know that if I am trying my best to follow through with this God will see that. I feel like even we feel like are failing at something, if we are making an honest effort than we are still doing good.

I have done a ton of research on fasting, the purpose behind people choosing to fast is as individual as the people fasting. But one main purpose is to become in union with God. One many thing that I have taken away from my fast is I need to make more time for God. I will make my quiet unplugged time with God an everyday thing!

1 week to go - I am praying that I make it to the end and that I feel satisfied with the way I did it.

If you are struggling with a fast whether it be sickness, hunger, or circumstance comment or email me.

~Fear not, I am with you always~

Forgiveness and Peace

Last night I was reading about forgiveness and peace and realized that I didn't really understand the way that forgiveness works. I have always gone to God to repent for my sins and ask for him to forgive me. I kind of just did it and then waited to fell better, to feel the weight being lifted. Well forgiveness from God also requires that we forgive ourselves and believe that we are in fact forgiven. We also need to remember that we are forgiven as we forgive others, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.". Through forgiveness comes peace.

Lately I have been praying a lot for peace. Having a 14 year old daughter makes for a very moody and chaotic house. Most of the time my daughter doesn't want to get along with anyone, and more specifically with me. She fights and argues about everything, doing her chores, getting along with her sister, obeying our rules, and being respectful. Because of this and her getting into trouble I am more likely to react in anger than any other way. So I pray for peace, for a peaceful house! When we are at peace we handle almost anything that life throws at us. God gives us peace through faith. When we are in union with God and have strong faith there is no need to stress and worry.

My Fasting Progress

I have been doing very well to my surprise on my 21 day fast, but I am human and I must confess my slip ups. Last night we had some friends over for game night and I had a bottle of wine and then this morning I woke up and had breakfast. I also over slept and missed church this morning.


I am telling you this because we all make mistakes and slip up. God knows that we are not perfect, but if we have remorse of these mistakes and continue to walk in Gods path we can pick up where we left off.


God hears our prayers—if we obey Him. But when the need for an answer is great, fasting, along with prayer, is extremely effective. God takes notice and responds when He sees how serious you are and how important His way of life is to you. I feel that its important to continue my fast because it has changed my day. It has taught me to put aside my own selfish tasks in the morning and focus on God and what I want for the day. It helps me prioritize feel more happy and fulfilled. Since I broke 2 days of fasting I will add these two days to the end of my fast.


Fasting is a way to draw you closer to God, show you His will, bring guidance, direction, help, strength, and deliverance. It is also helping to show God my willingness to learn, read the bible, build my relationship with God and show thanks to Him.


I will post more updates as my fast continues. This week I will also be sharing some posts about my family and other fun topics.

Prayer, Fasting, and Thankfulness

 

I wrote on Monday that I was starting a 21 day fast. Every morning I have put my social media aside, fasted through breakfast and have done my bible study with silent prayer. I have started a prayer journal and at the end of my quiet time I write down my thoughts and my prayer for the day. I have noticed that these last few days I have been more focused, full of purpose, and more calm.

Part of fasting is replacing the time that would have spent in doing whatever your fasting from in prayer. The foundation of our faith should be our relationship with God. To have a great relationship you have to spend time nurturing it. The communication and praise that is done before the crisis and requests for help from God is what builds our relationship.

I have prayed everyday, sometimes many times during the day for help with something. But I have been making an effort to thank God during prayer. To show Eucharist (Thanksgiving) - being thankful.

Here are a few questions to consider:

1. What can you do to deepen and increase your thankfulness, Joy, and grace?

2. What people in your life have revealed lives of grace, thankfulness and joy?

Fasting for the Greater Me

On Sunday my church started a 21 day fast. I have chosen to do the partial fast of a one meal a day fast. I will choose one meal each day and fast through that meal. I am also exchanging my morning Facebook and Instagram time for bible study.

My reasons for fasting.

1. I am fasting for a greater me in 2014
2. That my daughter will receive the message of God in her heart and follow his path (so that she may stop getting in trouble and start getting along with me and her dad)
3. I am fasting for patience with my family and guidance to be a better parent and wife

All those at my church that are doing the fast wrote down what they are fasting for on a paper and placed it on the alter. Our pastor prayed over them all and we received a bracelet that is to remind us that there is more...We can look at it during the day when we are having hard times.

Fasting is a private discipline and is meant to be attainable. In these areas where you fast the time should be filled with God and building your relationship with God. I hope that I can make it through the whole 21 days and I am committed to try to get to the 21st day!!!!

I will post my progress as I go.

Playing Catch Up

I really want to keep this blog as current to my life as possible, and not jump around or go back to the past. But to get you all caught up with where I am currently I have to fill you in on how I got here. I also want you to know that I am not all negative or a Debby-downer, and there have been just as many if not more happy times than the bad parts I’m sharing below.

The past 3 years have been a hot mess. So here is the short of it.

I was pregnant for most of 2010 with our youngest daughter being born November 11^th 2010.  Over the summer my back kept going out causing me a ton of pain. In December our house was broken into, our daughter was scared afterward and took a steak knife to school for protection, got caught, had to go to court, and almost went to Juvenile Hall. Our house flooded due to a broken pipe in the ceiling about 2-3 months later. In early 2011 we found out I have 2 herniated discs, severe inflammation, and moderate nerve problems caused by the arthritis in my spinal joints (here we are 2014 and my pain is the same and no one knows what will make it better, if anything). During this time our finances were tighter than tight made worst by a slowing at my husband’s work and the added stress of another child. Needless to say I was at my wits end.

This year really has been a roller coaster also. My husband went from no overtime to working 60+ hours a week, the money has given us some breathing room but at the expense of my husband’s time at home. Our daughter who is a teenager (13) is so lovely to be around…not! And has been getting herself into some really trouble (I will share more about her later). My back is awful, we have tried almost everything there is too try without having major back surgery, and I am now on permanent disability. I lost a very close friend due to a fight. And my parents are moved to another state L

During all this time I just kept praying for guidance and patients. For God to please give me some kind of sign as to what I needed to do to get our life back to a good place. Isn’t it crazy how when bad things happen all we can think about is what WE have done wrong? It’s hard to think “what is God planning for us? What is all of this leading to?”

I can honestly say however without all of this I would not have re-engaged in my faith and relationship with God. Which all started by finding Lysa Terkeurstbook What Happens When Women Say Yes to God. You can check out Lysa's Blog @ http://lysaterkeurst.com/

 

 

A little More Background

I mentioned before that after I had my oldest daughter I avoided church. I think I had so much shame and trauma from having a child while still being a child myself that it was too painful to hear the messages that church had to offer. My parents had such strong feelings of disappointment that I thought the church would have them also. Over the years my family and friends have tried to get me to attend church and bible study, I was still so stuck in my shame that I always declined. If this sounds like you then I’m sure you are familiar with “I just haven’t found the right church for me”, “I am too shy for bible study”, excuse, excuse, excuse. I think the two main issues were my shame and not wanting to be judged.

We often feel unworthy to approach God and have the loving and intimate relationship that He wants us to have with him! Shame prevents us from intimacy with God because it makes us feel unworthy and distant from Him.

Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

God wants us to draw near to Him with a clean conscience that has been freed from dead works!

Women are more affected by shame then men. We often feel that we don’t measure up and are never good enough even for God. We as women have these feeling more often because of the curse / consequences given down from the falling of Eve.

 

There are two things we need to remember Romans 8:1 -There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we have been given grace. I will touch more on grace in my next post till then… May God keep you and bless you. Rest in his love for he enough…and so are we!

 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

A little Background - And Welcome

I want to start this wonderful journey of a blog by giving you a little background about me and my family. My mom was raised in the United Pentecostal Church / Apostolic (UPC) and all of her family was in “the group” and most still are. She met my dad through one of her brothers and so the relationship began. After my parents were married my dad decided to go to Christian Bible School with the goal of being a UPC pastor. This was all before I was born. When I was 1 my parents decided that the churches views were too focused on outward appearances and what you needed to do to prove yourself as holy. They attended a Grace based Christian church and felt liberated; they finally found a place where the teachings of the church matched their beliefs about the teachings of the Bible.

My early experiences with religion and church were split between my parents and the Christian church and time spent with my grandparents (my mom’s parents) attending UPC church. In my preteen years I continued to attend church with my parents and whet to Christian summer camp. It wasn’t until my teen years that I began to rebel and not go to church.

I had my oldest daughter when I was 15 and after that I kind of avoided church. My husband and I got engaged when I was 18, did our premarital Christian counseling and were married in 2004. My husband’s family is all catholic and so he was raised catholic. My husband and I never really talked about religion, our views, or what we could teach our children about faith/religion until after we married.

In the past few years I have felt the pull to re-engage in my faith. I started asking my husband what he thought about finding and joining a church. Did he want us / our family to be Catholic or Christian. The answer has always been the same “I don’t care, either way” and “I don’t mind going to church, but I don’t agree with what they say / teach.” So my daughter started going to youth group at a local Christian church and I started doing my own private bible study alone.

And now here is a little about my own family. I’m Lindsy a stay at home mom, my husband Chad works for an oil company, our oldest daughter is 14 and our youngest daughter is 3. We were born and raised in Northern California where we currently live.

So that brings us to the present. The purpose of this blog is to share my journey of faith, personal relationship with God, and my family’s journey along the way. I in no way have in depth knowledge about Christianity or the “correct” way to have faith or a relationship with God. This is just my personal experiences and ways of thinking. I hope that you enjoy this blog and engage through comments and personal emails. We all have room to grow and I look forward to growing with you through this blog.