Day 2: Receiving What you Need until You Get What You Want

Scripture: Psalm 81 (I'll begin there and read until I feel lead to stop)

Today's Menu:

Breakfast Smoothie (makes as about 36oz)

Measurements are approx.  I'm getting like my grandmother-making stuff to taste rather than by recipe....LOL!

• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 12 ice cubes
• 4 bananas
• cup of pineapples chunks in own (unsweetened) juice
• 3-4 heaping tbsp of Healthy Balance peanut butter

Barilla multi grain rotini tossed with steamed broccoli and Prego marinara sauce

I Matzo with peanut butter

nectarine

cashews

freeze dried apples or pears

raw carrots

Not sure about dinner but may try brown rice, black beans, and corn with string beans on side

I am trying to get at least 5 servings of fruit and vegetables in per day. I want to carry that habit away with me.  

Food that Made the Cut: There are food I plan on eating AFTER the fast...

I am about the smoothies with the coconut milk!  I'm gonna compare the coconut with the cow's milk and choose whichever gives me the best combination of nutrients

I am also to experiment with veggie smoothies next week, probably starting with carrots and orange juice...what else should I put in it?

multi grain pasta and prego marinara.  That is what's UP!! I do NOT eat pasta without some flesh whether it is beef, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish but I can do this easily and toss in a few more veggies. I am gonna try to stay away from the parmigiana cheese because it tastes fine without it

Matzo--I've always loved it and would often go to the Hillel section of Yale's dining hall when all else failed for those huge flat crackers that could be topped with almost anything.  After the fast, I'll stick with the matzo but be able to add a few more toppings other than peanut butter

Healthy Balance Peanut Butter--don't need the sugar, so why buy something with it sugar added?!

Freeze dried apples and pears--tasty!

Receiving What You Need until You Get What You Want

We've made it through day 1 and had a wonderful Bible Study and consecration service afterwards! God's spirit was palpable...could you sense the assurance of breakthrough?  I feel like both we and God are pleased with this fast.  I am excited about doing it and have been looking forward to it, preparing for success by getting my food and kitchen ready to avoid temptation but last night I felt in very tangible ways that we are standing in the center of God's will on this one.  Change is inevitable, SOMETHING is about to break forth! All I know is--I want to be in the number!

The title of my blog is also the lesson God impressed upon my spirit yesterday.  The issue for me was not hunger for food, my hunger was satisfied.  It was the desire for certain tastes--a cookie, or piece of chocolate.  I didn't really want the broccoli or raw carrots (I'm not a big vegetable eater esp if it's not cooked with a little butter, smoked turkey or pork....) but it was what I needed.  I felt like God was challenging me by saying: Can you receive what you need...even appreciate it, even when it is not what you want?  

That's the initial challenge for me and maybe for you: God really breaking my will and me surrendering to His in the simplest of things so that God really guides every aspect of my life.  Normally choosing between broccoli and a cookie doesn't matter--I eat both or just the cookie because I am grown and I can afford it and I want it (how many things is THAT a rationale for?!) But now, "no cookies and eat your broccoli" and I am a child before my Father doing what he says because He is running this household.  Fasting is bring my "little" rebellions to the surface and it is not pretty.  Can I tell you that I am a little afraid of what is deeper down? But like silver in the refiner's fire, I am asking God to remove these impurities as they come to the surface.  

I am convinced of this...it is time to decide if we are going to do things God's way or continue with business as usual and I don't think God is tolerating much more of the usual business when we know better.  I know I am sick of the slip shop, mediocre, and petty getting in the way of Divine purpose and will.  I am tired of complaining audibly and silently about being inconvenienced and then asking God to do the impossible and weary of hearing it around me. Aren't you? I don't want to take His grace for granted, I don't want to miss this breakthrough over a cookie, an egg, or a chicken wing.  When this fast is over, I will not only eat physical meat but it is my heart's desire to feast on the meat of His word.  I am weary of the wilderness and am seeking the Promised Land!

So how was your first day?