Fasting Devotional Day 14

“Day 14: Magnifying Your Worship

What did David mean when he said, “Deep calls unto deep,” in Psalm 42:7? While fasting, David’s hunger and thirst for God was greater than his natural desire for food. As a result, he reached a place where he could cry out from the depths of his spirit to the depths of God, even in the midst of his trial. Once you’ve experienced even a glimpse of that kind of intimacy with the Holy Creator of the universe—and the countless rewards and blessings that follow—your worship life changes.

David was a man after God’s heart. He was a man who fasted often, and not just from food. As a youth, he was often in the fields alone with just the sheep and his God. After he was anointed king, he spent many days running for his life. David wrote Psalm 34 while alone and on the run from Saul in the land of the Philistines. But David stirred himself to worship God even in those conditions, proclaiming, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (v. 1), and “taste and see that the LORD is good” (v. 8). “A routine worshiper in those circumstances would have been totally overwhelmed. But David knew that to worship God was to magnify God. His invitation to all of us to “magnify the LORD with me” (v. 3) still stands open today.”

“What would your answer be if the Lord asked you, “Do you remember the last time you were lovesick for Me?” I began to ponder that question recently. I thought back to the time when Cherise and I were dating. We were deeply in love and wanted to spend every moment together. It was probably a good thing our parents wouldn’t let us because we would have surely starved to death. For the longest time, whenever we would go out to eat, we would end up talking after about three bites because we were so engrossed with each other. I know that sounds a little sappy, but stay with me—I have a point. I cannot tell you the money I wasted on meals, simply because our desire to talk and spend time with each other was greater than our desire for food. We were “lovesick” for each other. As I thought back on that, it hit me. That is what the Lord feels when we fast. When we are so lovesick for our first love, fasting is easy.

“So I ask you, do you remember the last time you walked away from a meal because you were so preoccupied with your first love that the food was of no interest? Have you experienced seasons when it felt like the Bridegroom was distant? You just don’t sense His presence as close as you once did. You have no heart for worship, and you lack the excitement and childlike enthusiasm you once had for spiritual things.Perhaps it is time to stop the busyness of your everyday life and declare a fast, a season of lovesickness to restore the passion of your first love back to its proper place in your life. When you fast, everything slows down. The days seem longer. The nights seem longer, but in the quietness of seeking, you will find Him whom your heart desires.”

“When you worship, you magnify God. Your enemies or circumstances may seem to be so large and so powerful that they are all you can see. But when you worship, you not only magnify God but you also reduce the size and power of everything else around you. Later in Psalm 34, David said, “I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (v. 4). God will hear you when you set your heart to worship Him. When you magnify the Lord, you shrink the supposed power of your enemy, the devil. The greatest thing you can do in the midst of a battle is magnify the Lord. Jehoshaphat is proof of that. When under attack, the whole nation cried out, fasted, and worshiped God. Jehoshaphat sent the praisers out ahead of the army to magnify their God, and He utterly delivered Judah from their enemy.

God does not need our routines or savor heartless activity. He does not want our “leftovers.” True worship that comes from our hearts feeds Him and satisfies Him; it is something He desires—and deserves.”

“On your fourteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Listen to your favorite worship CDs.

• Focus on your meditation and listening for God’s still, small voice.

• Weight loss continues.

Thoughts for your journal:

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• Praise God for bringing you this far, and thank Him for His steadfast presence.

Prayer Focus Day 14: Discernment

Discernment is the ability to judge rightly. Just as Solomon prayed for wisdom, you and I can ask God to strengthen our discernment of people, situations, and opportunities. It has to do with being sensitive to His Spirit, which increases exponentially when you are fasting. So, as you continue this journey, make it a point of prayer to ask God to increase your discernment of people, situations, and more. And study His Word. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

—1 JOHN 4:1, NIV”