7 days!
yesterday i got a text from roe manalo asking if i could drop by ENLI
and give my testimony on video on why i'm excited to join the annual
7-day prayer and fasting this year. i told her it was going to be my
first time, and asked if that was ok and she replied "Yup. Just why ur excited to fast if you are ΓΌ caloy said you are daw e."
i knew it! calooooooy. hahaha... sabi na nga ba ikaw eh.
last sunday kasi i think he heard me squealing (yes, squealing) my
excitement about it, especially after i saw the booklet "The Armor of
God", a guide to our 7-day prayer and fasting.
of course, thanks to makati traffic i arrived just in time to sing with
teri and attend the prayer meeting, so we had to do the video after
that.
JA did the interview, and i actually can't remember what i said
anymore, except i couldn't contain what i had to say "in just one
sentence". veej...have you EVER heard me say anything in just one
sentence? bleh...
.
i'm excited to fast! i've been a Christian for just over a year now...i
didn't join the 7-day fasting last year because i felt i wasn't ready
to do it. i wanted to fully understand first why we were fasting, and i
wanted my whole heart and soul and mind to be ready, and i guess at
that time i wasn't bursting with excitement like i am now... i was
still in questioning...in doubt. but now, i can't wait. the last time i
felt this excited was...um, hm. i can't remember...pero matagal na.
hahaha.
JA kept asking me to explain the feeling... how can you explain
something like that? it was difficult to say "i'm excited about not
eating"... and that's when i realized that it's not what fasting is
about. it wasn't about NOT eating. it wasn't about skipping meals. i
don't feel like i'm "skipping" anything. it's not a diet, nor is it
being deprived on anything. deprivation is dispossession, a withdrawal
and is associated with damage. how can you be damaged by focusing on
God? impossible!
Pastor Joey said it perfectly last Sunday... you're so focused on God
you forget about everything else. it's being in love with HIM.
i told JA that when i'm with the music team, sometimes we do forget
about eating because we're so focused on perfecting the music, making
worship excellent and getting everything right that our lunchtime would
be at 4pm. or we're eating but our mind is still on the music or the
lyrics. when i was teaching in kids church, sometimes we wouldn't eat
until the end of the day, not because we were skipping meals but
because we're so focused on the children we actually forget to eat.
we're so busy preparing for the roles we were assigned that day, so
busy teaching them about God and learning from them that food is just
an after thought. then at the end of a busy day at KC Sunday or a full
day of being with the music team, i don't feel deprived... in fact,
it's the complete opposite. physically tired but spiritually full...
i'm more satisfied than i would be any other day of the week, and we
continue to be amazed at how God sustains us with a different kind of
strength, something we don't get out of food or any other material
thing from this earth. it's a swelling, soaring awesome sort of
feeling, and that was just one day...imagine seven days of THAT! no
kind of ulam, favorite dessert or eat-all-you-can buffet will ever
match the gifts God has given us.
so here's to a week of humbling ourselves before God... of focusing on
Him that we forget everything else. we don't need food to appreciate
life, because HE is at the center of it. HE will sustain us and we will
delight in Him.
cheers! ^_^
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
- Psalm 63:1-5
and give my testimony on video on why i'm excited to join the annual
7-day prayer and fasting this year. i told her it was going to be my
first time, and asked if that was ok and she replied "Yup. Just why ur excited to fast if you are ΓΌ caloy said you are daw e."
i knew it! calooooooy. hahaha... sabi na nga ba ikaw eh.
last sunday kasi i think he heard me squealing (yes, squealing) my
excitement about it, especially after i saw the booklet "The Armor of
God", a guide to our 7-day prayer and fasting.
of course, thanks to makati traffic i arrived just in time to sing with
teri and attend the prayer meeting, so we had to do the video after
that.
JA did the interview, and i actually can't remember what i said
anymore, except i couldn't contain what i had to say "in just one
sentence". veej...have you EVER heard me say anything in just one
sentence? bleh...
.i'm excited to fast! i've been a Christian for just over a year now...i
didn't join the 7-day fasting last year because i felt i wasn't ready
to do it. i wanted to fully understand first why we were fasting, and i
wanted my whole heart and soul and mind to be ready, and i guess at
that time i wasn't bursting with excitement like i am now... i was
still in questioning...in doubt. but now, i can't wait. the last time i
felt this excited was...um, hm. i can't remember...pero matagal na.
hahaha.
JA kept asking me to explain the feeling... how can you explain
something like that? it was difficult to say "i'm excited about not
eating"... and that's when i realized that it's not what fasting is
about. it wasn't about NOT eating. it wasn't about skipping meals. i
don't feel like i'm "skipping" anything. it's not a diet, nor is it
being deprived on anything. deprivation is dispossession, a withdrawal
and is associated with damage. how can you be damaged by focusing on
God? impossible!
Pastor Joey said it perfectly last Sunday... you're so focused on God
you forget about everything else. it's being in love with HIM.
i told JA that when i'm with the music team, sometimes we do forget
about eating because we're so focused on perfecting the music, making
worship excellent and getting everything right that our lunchtime would
be at 4pm. or we're eating but our mind is still on the music or the
lyrics. when i was teaching in kids church, sometimes we wouldn't eat
until the end of the day, not because we were skipping meals but
because we're so focused on the children we actually forget to eat.
we're so busy preparing for the roles we were assigned that day, so
busy teaching them about God and learning from them that food is just
an after thought. then at the end of a busy day at KC Sunday or a full
day of being with the music team, i don't feel deprived... in fact,
it's the complete opposite. physically tired but spiritually full...
i'm more satisfied than i would be any other day of the week, and we
continue to be amazed at how God sustains us with a different kind of
strength, something we don't get out of food or any other material
thing from this earth. it's a swelling, soaring awesome sort of
feeling, and that was just one day...imagine seven days of THAT! no
kind of ulam, favorite dessert or eat-all-you-can buffet will ever
match the gifts God has given us.
so here's to a week of humbling ourselves before God... of focusing on
Him that we forget everything else. we don't need food to appreciate
life, because HE is at the center of it. HE will sustain us and we will
delight in Him.
cheers! ^_^
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
- Psalm 63:1-5
