Sugar Fast Day 34
With less than a week to go with this fast I am already thinking about Day 41 and beyond. I admit that while I am looking forward to the sweet taste of a mocha on day 41, I am NOT wanting to return to my over-indulgent lifestyle of Day 0. How will I stay strong and ensure that I continue to live a life of good choices? This morning I am learning from Daniel.
“Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief official not to defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8)
Daniel lived during Babylonian captivity. It was a time of ungodly, Gentile, world domination. Worldly temptation was everywhere. Daniel and his friends sought to protect themselves from such temptations by refusing to eat the king’s food and drink. (It was a diet of rich foods and drink.). By adhering to a more strict diet, Daniel remained healthier and stronger than those who ate the king’s food.
“At the end of 10 days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.” (Daniel 1:15-16)
Choosing a different diet was also a constant reminder to Daniel that he was a stranger in this culture. As people of God, the world was a foreign land. The world today isn’t much different than in Daniel’s time. The pull to follow worldly desires is more prominent than ever before. Everywhere you look promises of a better life, less pain, a more beautiful body and status come screaming at us from all around. Also still true today, children of God are strangers in a foreign land. The Apostle Peter warns believers, therefore, not to give into such temptations:
“Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.” (1 Peter 2:11)
I also think Daniel didn’t just wake up one day and decide to go against the king’s diet recommendations. He had made up his mind long before that day to follow God. He hSeld a conviction to be faithful to God’s laws so that when he was tempted with the king’s enticing food and drink, it was easier to follow through with his conviction.
Stay Strong
Just like taking my thoughts captive before they lead me into temptation (see my Day 3 post), making a plan now, to stay strong after the fast is a must. I know the world will tempt me. I will be surrounded by people who are eating all the yummy sweet treats I want to eat. But I do not have to succumb to those temptations.
What about you? What convictions do you have that help you stay your course?