Daniel Fast: Day 9

Day 9!! I am almost half way through. I am not sure
how it is for the rest of you but waking up with a cold
is one of my most Unfavorite things ever. Today was
one of the most difficult days. Tomorrow marks one week
that I have been sick and I was hoping to be dramatically
improved by now. I can function it is just getting 
annoying. 


BUT my study is becoming increasingly intense and at
every turn the Lord is speaking to me. We know that God
speaks to His believers through His word, through other
believers and through the Holy Spirit. This has been the
case in multiple ways over the last 24 hours. Yesterday
I was knitting and I felt a strong tug to read the first 
chapter of Proverbs. Many resources I have been using
during this fast suggest Proverbs as a good daily reading
because it is 31 chapters and you can read it in a month.
I have read Proverbs and love it. It gives such in depth
wisdom and knowledge and really makes you think about
your heart and your actions. So I read chapter one.
Today I turned to one of the devotionals I have chosen
to read during my fast and what was the suggested 
reading for today? Proverbs chapter 2!!!!! And of course
everything I read from the 2 completely unrelated 
devotionals were related and what I have specifically 
started this fast to find out. 


Also my friend Jacque gave me a book by Francine Rivers
called A Lineage of Grace. It is actually 5 different books 
she has written that was put into one. They are 5 different
stories about women in the Bible who lead amazing lives
of faith for God and each was in the lineage of Christ
the last story being about Mary. Yesterday I finished
the first book and it was about Tamar. I tell you our 
teenage girls could learn a thing or two from this girl.
Women in Biblical times were treated as the weak ones.
Well they were not weak. Actually we all could learn a
thing or two from them. They were strong and lead
very hard lives and if they were not married and if they 
did not produce sons, they ended up being beggars and 
prostitutes. 


Tamar really inspired me. She was patient and she waited,
and waited and waited and Then she waited some more
for her right to be fulfilled. Until finally she saw her 
opportunity to move and doing such meant that she 
could be killed and she almost was. But she had faith in
the God of the Hebrews and He used this young teenage
girl to bring a grown man back to Him. WOW!! I highly
recommend you read her story in the Old Testament.
She inspired me that if she can wait for her rights
to be fulfilled for almost a decade, I can do this
for 21 days. Her life was beyond hard and yet she 
remained faithful. 


AND Jacque's husband Sean sent us a blog he had read
from a pastor in North Carolina. Completely related to
several areas of my life that I have been looking for 
answers. The summation of the blog: we often have to
take small steps to get to our Big goal. We cannot forget
that the small victories are just as important and give us
just as much reason to celebrate and praise God as 
meeting the Big goal. We are a society of getting what we
want immediately, Me included. But Look at Noah! Oh
my how long did he build the ark? 100 Years!!!!! God
gives us a vision to do something for Him and we get
antsy when it does not happen right away! It is so hard
for me to keep my eyes fixed on the prize. Tamar, Noah
so much of the Old Testament shows us when God calls
us to something it is probably going to be hard and take
time but He who began a good work in us, He will be
faithful to complete it!