God Spaces

For the next three weeks, I am doing an experiment to create more space for God-hunger in my life.  This is inspired by the book Seven, written by Jen Hatmaker.  Over a total of seven months, she did fasts in seven different areas of her life where she has the biggest battle with excess.  Some of her focus areas were food, clothing, entertainment, possessions, and stress.  In the book, Jen shares her raw journalings as she walked through each day of these fasts....the good, the bad, and the ugly....and some revolutionary things God taught her. 

So I went through this book a couple months ago with some friends, and it gave us a lot to think about and discuss.  But just reading about someone else's experience doesn't bring change in your life.  We have to find a way to apply it.  I wanted to do some form of Seven for myself, but I kept putting off committing to it for various reasons, and the trip to Romania kind of overshadowed everything else....but then I found out that a teenage friend who volunteers on the ranch during the summer did her own version of Seven while I was away, and she has inspired me to stop thinking about doing something and JUST DO IT!

I am not focusing on excess for this fast as much as on the distractions that fill up the empty spaces in my life and dull my hunger for God's presence.  So rather than seven areas, I've chosen just a few things I need to put off in order to set the stage for seeking wholeheartedly after God.  I'm sharing this with whoever reads my blog for a healthy dose of accountability, and so I can also share what comes out of the experiment.  Three weeks is small, but it's a start.  Sometimes we never start something because we think we have to do it big or not at all. 

Most of my fast is going to involve entertainment, because that is my biggest space filler.  So no movies, no Facebook, Youtube, blogs, or websurfing/shopping/etc.  My computer time will be strictly for email communication, worship music, and writing. 

Since giving up something you regularly crave with the physical body is a way of humbling yourself to recognize your spiritual weakness and need before God, I'm going chocolate free.  Yeah.  Not going to be easy.  I rarely go without chocolate for more than a few days.  But I believe it is worth the sacrifice to gain stronger desire for God. 

The other part of this fast is actually adding something to my daily priorities to be more intentional in seeking God.  I'm setting a prayer pause for 7 AM and 7 PM every day.  This is the time to bring everything back to center.  And I have a lot to pray about!  The close of the ranch season is coming up quickly and I have decisions to make about where to go and what to do next.  God has planted a crazy God-sized dream in my heart in the last few days and I need to prayerfully put my faith on my feet and take the first step to find out where He wants to go with it.  And most importantly, I need to fix my eyes on God and my heart on believing Him....who He says He is, what He says He will do, who He says I am, and the obedient response that His Word is calling for. 

I don't know if you'll hear from me until the end of the Seven fast.  I plan to share what comes out of it, even if it's not spectacular.  If you took the time to read this, would you stop and pray for me?  Ask God to wreck whatever He needs to wreck in me so I can follow Him fully.  And ask that He will get glory from this experience and use it to bring change in other people's lives, not just mine.

May you hunger and thirst more deeply for God and His righteousness today!