by Our Exhaustion
Leviticus 16:20-34
Here is a silly question for most of us. Are you tired of fasting yet? No matter what you’ve given up (food, facebook, etc.) I’m sure the cravings have started to set in. Every step through your kitchen or just through your daily chores can be a pounding, constant reminder of what you do not have.
In Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement (also known as Yom Kippur) is described in both vivid and excruciating detail. Imagine standing by as Aaron, the High Priest, spends hour after hour confessing the sins of every person in the nation of Israel. Oh yeah, including yours! All the while, you would stand by with no food or water in your body. Everything you depended on for what would seem like eternity would be on the head of that goat and the eventual blood that would be spilled that day.
As a child, I was told that fasting was quite simply this: you realizing that you can’t do it on your own. You need that bite of food. You need that swallow of water. It is through these basic life sustaining symbols that we can understand one of the most basic rules of this life. Quite simply it is that we can’t do it on our own. It is Jesus, the perfect atoning sacrifice, that does it all for us.
Too often we can find that verses that “we live by” are more mantras we say. One of the most quoted verses is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him that strengthens me.” It saddens me how often I replace “him” with “me.” The balance is thrown out of our lives. We look for answers inside ourselves and not to the one who our total dependence should be upon. Reduce your exhaustion-shift what you’re carrying to the one who can shoulder the load.
Thoughts
*Have you spent your time thinking about what you have been doing without? When temptation comes during your fast, think about what you do have in the sacrifice of Jesus.
*Try a new equation for balance.
100% dependence on Christ + 0% dependence on myself =Personal Balance
Pastor Paul
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