I love the Shunnamite Woman

Re-reading the post about the Shunnamite Woman just makes me cry. God will give me a house. I know He will. He gave me a child when I was barren all those years. He gave me, the girl who couldn't have kids and tried everything, a gorgeous little girl. I do believe in miracles. I do.

In the photo: The gorgeous little girl - aka Gracey the Rock Chick - all partied out after singing too much 'Livin on a prayer' by Bon Jovi.

Day 4 - Recipes and Ideas

While doing my Daniel Fast, I've been eating a vegan diet. It makes breakfast hard, because cereal is not so nice without cows milk and, frankly, I'm not keen on soy milk or rice milk. They just taste yuk. I'd rather not have milk than drink that stuff. I know that makes me sound fussy, but I would seriously rather make my porridge with water and throw a bit of fruit on top of it, than to try to convince my tastebuds that soy milk tastes as good as cows milk.

Anyway, here are some of the recipes I've been playing around with on my fast.

Brekky Hash
This was inspired by Nigella's Brekky Hash - but she has bacon.

1 x tomato diced
1 x decent sized mushroom sliced
1 x Good handful of baby spinach leaves
1 x splash of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parsley if you have it.

Stir-fry all ingredients on a med-high heat until hot and spinach is wilted, around 3 - 5 minutes.

Serve on toasted wholegrain / sourdough bread or alongside some baked beans.

Optional idea: add some sliced fresh chilli to the mix.


Tainton's Carrot Salad

Grated carrot
Shredded coconut
Slivered almonds
Blackcurrants


Toast the coconut and roast the almonds. Toss all the ingredients together into a bowl and enjoy it. It works best with baby carrots because they are naturally sweet.


Date stuffed apples
These apples literally have their dates stuffed with apples.

Granny smith apple
Date (1 per apple)
Honey
Cinnamon

Remove the core from granny smith apple, leaving a clean hole in the centre. Run a horizontal slit around the skin so that the apple can swell on cooking. Stuff the apple hole with the date. Top it with a drizzle of honey and some cinnamon. Bake in the oven on 200c for approximately 20 minutes. This would be nice with accompaniments but none of them are included on my fast so I ate it straight.


A couple of ideas that work well in a vegan fast:

Sushi Rolls with Vegetable Fillings
Thai Rice Paper Rolls.

Pride comes before a,....

Well, after yesterday's proud humility, comes the inevitable fall. I was out, jetsetting around the coast. I was prepared with nuts, fruit and boiling water in a thermos for some herbal tea. I'd drunk my one coffee for the day and,.... well, I confess,... I bought a coffee. Not only did I not need the coffee (since I had already drunk one an hour or two before), the coffee was not part of my fast and neither was the MILK it was made from.

I do feel like I have committed a monumental blunder here. I wonder about the implications for the rest of my fast. Does God turn his face away from me now? Do I have to pay some kind of fasting penance?

No. I do need to come before God and repent though. My heart,.... the heart attitude that made me buy that coffee when I didn't need one, was one of selfishness and pride. My focus was not on God but on me and my body and how nice it would make me feel to drink a warm milky coffee on this miserable rain-flooded day. Even as I ordered it, I felt guilty. Repentance is necessary,...

But I know that as I come to God with a sorry heart and seek forgiveness he will be faithful and just and He will give me more opportunities to draw near to Him.

Psalm 113

¹ Praise the LORD.
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.

² Let the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.

³ From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.

⁴ The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.

⁵ Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,

⁶ who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

⁷ He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

⁸ he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.

⁹ He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.

I love the promises of God. These are what I am holding out for with this fast. I am reminding God of the good promises He has made to me, the barren woman, who doesn't have enough money for a home.

Proud of myself,...

I am proud of myself for being so humble. Sounds stupid, I know,... but what I mean is I'm proud of myself for laying my pride down at the Lord's feet through fasting. I'm really glad I've done this - even just for two days!!!

For two whole days my actions have showed the Lord that He is God in my life. Every meal and snack time is an opportunity to humble myself and honour God. Even if I collapse and crumble tomorrow, I will still be happy with myself for spending two days honouring God. If I can make it to 21, all the better!!!!

Q: How often in our busy lives do we set aside time for God?
A: Not very! We rush around from alarm clock to couch collapse doing things we will have forgotten all about in two months time.

But fasting has eternal significance. It is an act of worship and of breaking down strongholds. It glorifies God and it heals my body all at the same time. What a miracle!

So today, I felt closer to God than I have in a long time and it was because I had been obedient to His word. In 1 Samuel 15:22 it says to obey is better than sacrifice, meaning it is far better to do as God asks in the first place, than to sin and rely on the Grace of God. Obedience is joyful and abundant. Sacrifice carries with it scar tissue and regret.

Fast Day 1 - Caffeine Withdrawals

The first day of my fast was harder than anticipated. The problem? Coffee. My body is used to having around three heavy coffees a day, and one or two decafs. I was planning to fast coffee as well as part of the Daniel Fast.

By lunch time I had one heck of a headache and was really churned up inside about the issue of coffee and this fast. I've done two Daniel Fasts previously and I did one each way. My rationale for keeping the coffee in was that I failed the first fast and fell apart after six days. I didn't want coffee cravings to be the reason for failing the entire fast and then beating myself up for it. After all, this is not a diet it is a spiritual endeavour.

So I've spent the entire day feeling a bit confused about what to do and how to cope with the headaches and cravings. My decision is this - I will drink a couple of coffees tomorrow because I'll be at work and the last thing I need while working is a headache. On Wednesday, though, I'll cut the coffees out and allow myself to detoxify. After all, isn't that the point of the fast? The headaches should be all gone by the time I have to work again.

Maybe coffee is one thing that would be good to give up completely as a result of this fast???? Herbal tea eg. peppermint tea has a lot fewer nasty side effects.

I spent some time in prayer today and even marvelled when God gave me an instant answer to a little request for help. All those headaches today prompted prayers that would not normally get prayed. I know that God is faithful and the other things I'm fasting and praying for will be high up on God's to do list this month.

My 21 day fast starts tomorrow

I am doing a 21 day fast, starting tomorrow, in conjunction with the congregation at my Church. Jesus said not to make it obvious that you are fasting, but to get dressed, brush your hair and get on with your life. The whole point of fasting is to reconnect and revitalise your relationship with God, not to gain some kind of sympathy from your colleagues and friends. So why am I sharing it all here on my blog?

I want you to understand what it's like to fast. I want to share the sacrifices and struggles that go with it. I also want to share the miracles that happen as a result of my fast - I am expecting several! I have fasted before and failed before I reached my planned end date. So, as a strategy to help me make it to the end I have anticipated temptation and made plans to deal with it. Expect a blog entry about that on approximately day 6, if past experience is anything to go by.

There is a group of Church goals that we are believing for,.... but my understanding of the spiritual purpose of fasting is that it breaks strongholds. So, really, we are believing for the breaking down of strongholds that would prevent us from reaching our goals.

My personal stronghold and my lifelong battle that needs divine intervention is an addiction to food. I'm a foodie, a food junkie, a chocaholic, you name it I crave it! Food is my number 1 coping mechanism and boy, doesn't my waistline show it! I've even been counselled for a binge-eating disorder,... but some counsellors say it's not an eating disorder, it's just disordered eating. Either way, it's inappropriate and it puts food before God.

So, God has been leaning on me, as He does and his Holy Spirit has been speaking to me about doing this 21 day fast and laying down my food addiction once and for all. I know that it lies at the root of my struggles with PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). So it is with humility and trepidation that I head off to bed tonight, knowing that from tomorrow morning all I will be eating are fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and wholegrains.

I'll blog daily through this time to explain more about the fast, the food, the rationale and the temptations. I'll tell you a little bit more about what I hope to gain from the experience and what I hope to do at the end of this 21 days. So stay tuned and return often for updates.