Have It My Way?

So there I was on a day recently when I was fasting...sitting at a stop light...with a Burger King to my left. The smell of burgers on the grill was killing me. My insides already felt like they were gnawing their way out. I was so hungry.


When I looked to to my left, immediately my eyes fell on Burger King's famous phrase emblazoned on the side of their building for all the world to see: "Have It Your Way!" And in that instant, I knew that phrase to be true. I could have it my way.


Yet I made a vow to fast at least one day a week during these 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer, and I intend to keep my promise. While I honestly don't understand all the spiritual dynamics of fasting, I do believe that the power of fasting is undeniable. But when I saw that phrase, "Have It Your Way!" I knew that I could choose the easy way and do whatever my body craved...or I could direct that physical hunger toward my spiritual hunger for God.


Perhaps I just seriously over-spiritualized a harmless slogan...but it was a spiritually dark statement to me in that moment. I literally sensed our enemy whisper to my heart, "You don't have to do this...Jesus never commanded you to fast...[and this is the clincher]...no one would know if you slipped in there and ate a burger or two." I literally had this discussion in my car! "I can have it my way...but I don't want my way! I want God's way!"


We know these words from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Inherent in those few words is an implied surrender of our wills to our Lord's. It's one way of saying, "I want God's way!"


May we be encouraged as we continue our "40 Days of Prayer and Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough"!