something spiritual for the sabbath no. 2

here goes my new weekly tradition! although today i am reporting from matt's computer, mine internally exploded!!! (i guess...) here is what i saw when i opened my computer up today

i know this isn't the best picture but you get the just. i know this has nothing to do with today's topic, i just had to share.

now for the good stuff. today's topic: fasting. the what, when, and why.

what is fasting? fasting is denying yourself food and water for a set amount of time. typically in the LDS faith, we fast for 24 hours at a time, which is essentially 2 meals. if you eat lunch on saturday, you would skip dinner that night and breakfast sunday morning then eat lunch on sunday after church. a proper fast begins and ends with prayer and includes a donation to the church in the amount of the 2 meals you skipped called a fast offering. this goes to help those less fortunate in our area.

when do we fast? in our church, we fast at least one sunday a month. typically, the first sunday of the month. this month was one of the exception months. we fasted on the first sunday, typical, but we also fasted this sunday to be october's fast, because next week we have a special meeting that is church-wide called general conference. (more on that next week, i'm already predicting it will be the bulk of my post next sunday) on these sundays that the whole church fasts we also have a special service which we call fast and testimony meeting. this is where no one is actually assigned to speak during the service. people get up and bear their testimony of the restored gospel as the spirit moves them too. it is usually a wonderful meeting where the spirit is especially strong. it is so nice to hear the testimonies of friends and ward family members.

why do we fast? we fast for some sort of spiritual reason. perhaps you have a particularly troubling issue that you would like extra help with. maybe you are feeling weak in some area of your testimony and faith and need to feel a confirmation of the truthfulness of that principle. or maybe you are fasting to just to show gratitude to the Lord for all of the millions of blessings in your life. no matter what, you fast with a purpose, otherwise you are just starving yourself. in your opening prayer of your fast, you make it known to the Lord what that purpose is. fasting is a chance to  actually feel sacrifice, to submit yourself to the Lord physically. the blessings you can receive from a fast are endless and very real. here are some personal stories of how fasting has helped me.

when i was a mia maid (14-15 year old girls group) we fasted as a class for two girls who were less active (not coming a lot). you can fast as a group too, by the way. i wrote in my journal that night that i had fasted for that, this was in october. we kept contacting them frequently, visiting, sending letters, calling, etc. not much happened. then in the following february, the girls showed up! and they never stopped coming. now, 7 years later, they are still active members of the church. it wasn't until after all that happened and i was rereading my journal that i remembered all of those efforts began with a fast.

i vividly remember when elizabeth smart was kidnapped. she was also a member of the church and she was the same age as me. even though so lived in utah and i lived in kentucky and i had never met her, i felt really sad and affected by her kidnapping, so i decided to fast for her. (you can fast anytime you want to, it doesn't just have to be once a month and on any certain day) i have a feeling many many other people were fasting for her too. she was eventually found and i know that my prayers had a little part in that.

last month was not a good or happy month from me. i was really really down about my job situation and spent a lot of nights feeling really sorry for myself. nothing could shake it off of me. so i decided that on this months fast sunday, i would fast simply for peace. that was my whole prayer. i cannot even explain to you the difference in this month from last. my family has commented on it and i feel a little better every day about my current situation. it's not like i still don't have bad days and i still don't pray every day for something better to come my way, but i have received peace.

these are just a few stories. the point of them is to bear testimony to you all reading all of this that i really do know the power of the fast is real! if you've never tried it, do it! have faith in the Lord that he will bless you for your faith, cause he will.