DANIEL FAST

Tomorrow marks the first day of the Daniel Fast. With this particular fast, the only things we are allowed to eat are fruits, vegetables, and nuts. We also only drink water. This is a 21 day fast that we are doing alongside many members and leaders of our church. This will be mine and my husband's second year, and let me tell you that last year was extremely hard for me, but my testimony is even greater!

My main prayer focus last year was that I my relationship with my brother would be restored. I hadn't heard from him in about a year and a half. I had no idea where he was living or how he was doing. My heart was very heavy burdened. Only a couple of days after my husband and I decided that we would partake in the fast, the miracles had already begun. I received a telephone call and I thought it was my nephew. "Happy New Year". I quickly said back to him, "Happy New Year". Then it dawned on me...this wasn't my nephew. I said, "Who is this?". The voice on the other line said, "This is your brother". I was speechless. In an instant, our relationship had been restored and he even came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks.

Another wonderful thing that happened is that 2011 was overall, our healthiest year as a family. If you are in need of healing, I would highly recommend this Daniel Fast. Did we receive all the miracles and healing that we were praying for? No. But, the ones that didn't happen last year, we are believing God to take care of them this year. Here's what did happen though; Towards the end of the year, I had my best month ever in my business. There were NO stomach bugs or strep throat in our home. My 12 year old didn't have to go to the doctor at all for the entire year. Also at the end of the year, my mother and her sister started talking again for the first time in 8 years!

A couple of healing miracles took place within my own body. I was healed from some mysterious thing that had been happening to me for about a year and a half. My head and side of my face would go numb and the numbness would run down my left arm, into my hand. My body would also shake uncontrollably for hours and hours. I had gone to the hospital at least 3 times in fear of having a heart attack or stroke. This last happened in June of 2011. I had a church friend come over and pray for me and I knew in that instant that God had healed me from this terrible thing.

I have also battled with depression most of my life. I had terrible postpartum depression after my second child was born. It took a long time for me to recognize that this wasn't just postpartum depression anymore. It had been 3 years since my son's birth and I still walked around in a fog about 4 or 5 days out of the week. I was just so overwhelmed by life. There were times when I just wanted to die. The only thing that kept me from following through with thoughts of killing myself, was thinking about my sons. I couldn't leave them without a mommy. Finally I realized that I wasn't really being much of a mommy for them. I was distant, sad, overwhelmed and easily angered. So one day, I went to the doctor and began taking 2 different types of medication, one of them was also to help with headaches I was getting on a daily basis and the other was for depression. Within a couple of weeks, I could really tell a difference. I was sleeping better, felt better about life and wasn't having headaches everyday.

It was great being on the medication, but I'm not the kind of person who wants to be on medication, so I began to pray about it. The Lord began to convict me that I needed to put full trust in Him and He would heal me completely from depression and the headaches. Then one day I went up to the alter at church to have someone pray and believe with me that the depression would be broken off of my life. About a week or two later, I stopped taking the medication. I didn't even tell my husband because I wanted to see if anyone noticed a difference. I knew that stopping medication cold turkey could have severe consequences because I had done that before and it turned me into a maniac. But, I was trusting God completely. A couple of weeks off of the medication went by and I told my husband what I had done and asked him for his honest opinion of my behavior for the last week or so. He actually told me that he thought I was doing better off of the medicine than I was doing on it. And people started telling me that I looked great. They had no idea what I had been through. Praise the Lord! I've been medicine free for over 2 months and I feel wonderful. I feel like I have my life back! And the scary headaches I was getting have never come back!

I do attribute all of the healing, financial favor and restored relationships to being obedient to our pastor's call to do a fast and taking this time to fully submit myself to the Lord. The fast is a time when you have to discipline yourself completely and draw closer to the Lord. I love doing it at the beginning of the year and making my prayer focus be things that I am expecting the Lord to do during this year. Even if He didn't do a single thing that I was asking Him for, I love Him the same and I know that He knows best. I praise Him for all that He's done in my life in 2011 and I look forward to seeing how He will use me in 2012.