When Your Desire Is Gone

I'm sure it is safe to say that only the truly committed believer is interested in pressing into worship.  Having said that, why is it that people who are so committed still only last a short period of time trying to break through all the barriers of flesh into worship before giving up?  Please don't feel condemned when I say; if you have not stopped yet, most likely you will unless you do something to prevent it.

I, like you, have many of the same struggles trying to juggle the things in life that are necessary and still have time to spend with Jesus.  What I am finding out is that no matter how hard we try to maintain our walk and go deeper into God, the flesh begins to get "thick" once again in areas we may have previously seen progress in.  Private times of worship is one of those areas.

The Lord has directed me to do some things to address these issues with my own flesh in an effort to retake some of that ground that the flesh recaptured.  You see, I have been noticing in my own walk that my time of private worship was being challenged.  I know how important it is to continue to press on if I am ever going to really break through and go to the next level in my relationship with Him.   What the Lord directed me to do may seem to you a bit drastic and maybe even unrelated to the problem at hand, but believe me it is not.  He directed me to do was to Fast.  Yes, Fast.  I know that is probably not what you want to hear, but let me share with you what I have discovered.

When the Lord sent me down this path into private worship it was clearly a mandate from Him and I charged in ready to conquer it.  The fact is, developing a lifestyle of private personal worship is not accomplished over night and it is not something you conquer and then go onto the next assignment.  Your objective is to establish a pattern for the rest of your life of intimate fellowship with your Father and Jesus which will follow you into heaven and eternity.  Your enemy is not at all interested in you taking the first step down this path.  But, for those of you who have won that battle and are already making your way down that path, his job is to sideline you and get you to the place where you are not interested in pressing in any longer.  Somewhere along the way you lose that desire to go on and before you know it weeks have gone by and you have not spent any time at all worshiping your Father.  This is usually followed by the enemy telling you what a loser you are and how you failed again so why even try to get back up and worship.  Can you identify with what I am saying?  The next thing you know there is absolutely no desire whatsoever to worship and so you stop.

If you find yourself in this situation, whether it be worship or prayer or whatever spiritual endeavor you are being resisted in, a sure cure for the "I don't cares" is a dose of fasting.  Whether you fast for a few meals or a day or a few days it will not take long before your "I don't care" attitude turns into pure desire rising up out of your spirit to do what before seemed impossible.  Your emotions can be so strong and if they are working against you spiritually then they must be turned and fasting is how we can turn them.  Before you know it, that thick flesh will begin to give way to your born again spirit and your desire to worship will return and you are on your way.  What is interesting to me is how quickly you are able to see the true desire emerging out of your spirit.  All it takes is for you to put a little pressure on your flesh and before you know it that "want to" to worship is back on line.

Some of you are saying, I need to see some scripture telling me to fast.  That is real easy.  In Luke 5:33 Jesus is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees who had just asked why John the Baptist and his disciples fasted often but He and his disciples did not.  Jesus began to question them about whether or not the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is still with them.  He is clearly speaking about Himself and the fact that He was present with them, but would soon be gone.  He then says,

Luke 5:35  But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.


We are living in those days.  Fasting is not fun and we really need to be cautious how we fast.  It is never wise to fast if you have any kind of medical condition before seeking the counsel of your physician.  The goal is not to hurt our bodies and we need to make sure we don't.  I have found for myself that fasting one day and eating the next and fasting the next is a very good way to get control of my flesh without hurting myself.  Sometimes on those fasting days I will not just limit myself to water, but I will drink some fruit juice or if I am working and really feel my body getting weak I will eat a piece of fruit.  Most important of all is to learn to listen to our body and not to push it beyond what is safe.  Again, consult your doctor to make sure fasting is okay for your body.  Everyone's body is different and we need to make sure we are doing what is right for our own body.

Finally, If you are someone who has been struggling and you decide to do some fasting, I would love to hear how fasting has benefited you.  Please take a few minutes and write a few lines about the difference you discovered once you fasted.  Tell us how your worship was directly impacted by your fasting.  I'm sure others would be blessed and encouraged by your testimony.