Review

Rating: Unrated

Don’t Dig It Up

I am absolutely excited about beginning the fast on January 10. I must say that excitement is a first where fasting is concerned. I have been reading the book Fasting by Jentezen Franklin the past several days. This book explains the biblical concept of fasting in a way that I had never thought of it before. Pastor Franklin explains that fasting should be as normal a part of every Christian’s life as is praying and giving.

Pastor Franklin shared many, many things in this book that were “wow” moments for me. I would like to share one of those stories with you. While in elementary school, Pastor Franklin took part in an experiment where he planted a butterbean seed in a milk carton full of dirt. He and his classmates placed each of their cartons in the window and returned daily to see if the plant had started to grow. By day 3, many of his classmates were starting to see sprouts. However, Pastor Franklin did not see sprouts on Day 3 and also no sprouts on the following 3 days. By Day 7, impatience set in and Pastor Franklin stuck his finger in the soil and pulled out his bean. Sure enough, the plant had begun to sprout. His teacher saw what he had done and kindly explained that by pulling up his plant, he had ruined his harvest.

The memories of that experiment have continued to stay with Pastor Franklin today because he has learned that we do the same thing with our spiritual lives. We hear from God – the seed – and it gets firmly planted in our lives. God tells us things like He will supply all of our needs, He has a plan for us, He has the perfect job for us, etc. The mountains we are facing seem impossible but we take that seed of faith and hold on.

However, if God does not act on those words in our timing, impatience sets in. We start seeing God move in other people’s lives but not in ours. We start to feel like God has forgotten the promises He made to us. We start to doubt if it was really God speaking to us in the first place because we don’t see anything. This is like when Pastor Franklin planted the seed in the carton but started to wonder if the seed was still there because he didn’t see anything. So as Pastor Franklin did the butterbean seed, we stick our fingers/opinions/ideas in and dig out the seed to early, destroying the promise.

Similar to Pastor Franklin’s experiment, it will be easy for us to not even start the fast because we can’t see past the desires of our flesh for food. Or if we begin, it will be tempting to stop after a few days or week because God hasn’t revealed anything to us yet. 2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” It is my prayer that you and I both will start and finish the race! Prepare your heart today to begin fasting on January 10 and then get ready to plant God’s seed in your heart and “Don’t Dig It Up!”