Many join the fasting tradition 40 days before Easter to prepare for Easter Sunday. This year, I’m also joining them in fasting… but in a different way. Transcripts and more are available at http://www.sabbathcafeblog.com
Hi everyone, happy 2023. I hope everyone is doing well. I can’t believe we’re already almost March. I took a few weeks off and I am working on the next podcast, but I did want to just jump in here and give everyone a quick update because it’s Lent season. And it’s kind of funny because I have not fasted in a very long time and the Lord didn’t put on my heart to fast either. But this year, somehow, he is bringing it back into my attention.
And I guess it started because my YouTube feeds, I started to get these videos about Lent and about fasting. And after a few times I got the message. So I started to ask the Lord, okay, is this something that I want to be doing? And how does he want me to do it this year? Because I don’t want to just follow the traditions. I kind of want to see what God has in store for that, how God wants to lead me in that area. And it’s funny because the pastor that I’ve been following, he also had an invitation to do fasting and prayer for the Lent season.
And I was like, oh, okay. So that kind of took me down a different path. So I started to ask the Lord. And so the day after, I was kind of having my tea and suddenly this idea just popped up. And I just felt like the Lord is asking, how about you fast from the thoughts of negativity? And I was like, huh? Now that’s a novel idea.
Actually this year, God has been challenging me to change my mindset, to upgrade my mindset and to learn to shift it from a negative mindset to a more hopeful outlook. And so when he talked about “Oh, why don’t you fast from negative thoughts?” I thought… Perfect. That’s something that is in line with what I’m learning right now, so I just feel like it will work much better. And so I said okay.
And so I think today is probably the third or fourth day that I’m doing this. And let me tell you, it’s a lot harder than fasting from food. And so the fasting that I used to do is fasting from meat. And what’s funny is when you do food fasting or that kind of fasting, you just really think about it pretty much three, four times a day. So every time you eat, you will stop and think, okay, I’m going to fast. So I have to make a decision to let go of meat or what I decide to give up. So that’s like three, four times a day.
And when I started to fast from negative thoughts, oh my goodness, now it went from three times a day of me working through my fast. Now it’s about 30 times, more like 30 times a day of me fasting because I didn’t realize how often negative thoughts come up in my mind. When I was just thinking about it, I thought, okay, so I’ll just be mindful of when I’m worrying about things or when I’m stressed out or when I’m frustrated. So that’s okay. Fine, I’m being mindful of those now. And then one day, I realized I had made a mistake. It was some decisions I made, I was kind of like, ah, dang it, I think God was recommending me to do something different and I probably should have done that. And that just would have made my day so much easier. And I was beating myself up.
And all of a sudden, I just felt the Lord went “ahem,” tapped on my shoulder: “Don’t beat yourself up. That’s negative thoughts.” And I was like, oh, I did not realize… I guess beating yourself up does count as negativity because you’re trying to berate yourself. And I was like, oh, that’s a good point. So I stopped and go, “Thank you, Lord, I give that to You” and move on.
And shortly after that, I was helping my parents take care of some stuff. And all of a sudden, I just started to be worried about their needs and their health. And I just went on this downward spiral. And I didn’t realize how naturally my thoughts just went there. And again, the Holy Spirit went, “Tap, tap. Just so you know, you need to stop that because we are fasting from negativity.”
And so I had not realized how much of my mindset and how much of my thought patterns… I’m so used to giving into these thoughts. And so I guess that’s what God is challenging me… to let go of those things and to, learn to have a new mindset. Because after all, Easter is really symbolic of hope and new beginnings. And so I really feel like maybe that is something that God is wanting to give me too… just this breakthrough in this old way of thinking and this old habits of mine that tend to be gray. And that just is not very helpful. So starting the Lenten season this year, that’s what I’m doing. I’m fasting from negative thoughts. I’m fasting from negativity. And maybe later in the year when I’m all done, I’ll do another follow up and maybe gather my thoughts and share another update on how that went.
So I just wanted to share this with you. And you know, I want to just encourage you, for those of you that also are doing that you feel like you want to do something for the Lenten season. I just want to applaud you and say, hey, encourage you just do what the Lord’s laid on your heart to do. And it may be food, it may be drinks, just whatever He’s put on your heart. It’ll be a great journey for the next 40 or 30 some days for this whole season. If you like, send me a comment to let me know what you may be fasting from during this Lenten season. And so I hope you’re all having a wonderful year.
And I am working on the next podcast. So hopefully I will get that out to you really soon. And have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for listening to Sabbath Cafe podcast. I’m Michele and I’ll see you next time.
