FB Fasting and Prayer

I have been fasting from Facebook this month. Not an easy thing, especially with the incredible events of the past few weeks. 

My FB fast started after an argument with God.

I had been sensing that he wanted to cut off my FB time, mostly because I had been forgetting a commitment I made to pray daily for requests sent from my church, and only remembered my commitment at the end of the day when I was already in bed and deemed it too late. Yet, I never seemed to forget to check FB first thing in the morning and throughout the day whenever my phone pinged a new post alert. Hmm. Selective memory, for sure.

So God spoke, as he often does, in his still, small, voice and drew my attention to my priority of FB over prayer and that I might need a FB hiatus to realign my values. I promptly poo-pooed his subtle suggestion as a figment of my over-active imagination. As his urging increased in intensity, I decided to switch tactics, from ignoring the suggestion to bargaining. Perhaps I could cut FB time down to five minutes a day. That way I could check the essentials, and yet still be obedient to God's request. That's where my thought process was as I left for church on Sunday morning, March 1.

In the service, my pastor (and I swear he was looking straight at me) asked, "How much time do you spend on Facebook?"

What? 

My pastor's intention was not to condemn FB as an evil entity. I know for a fact that he uses it himself. Plus our church has its own FB page, and several associated FB groups. FB is a wonderful invention! His point, which just so happened to align with God's, was that good things sometimes become more important than they should be, and take our focus away from better things. Point taken. That afternoon I posted a brief explanation on my personal page that I was leaving the FB community for a month. 

And since then all "H, E, double hockey sticks" has broken loose.

Corona Virus and Clovid 19 have become household words. Schools are closed, the stock market crashed (several times), and people are staying home and stock-piling toilet paper. 

If prayer wasn't my priority before, it certainly is now. God knew what he was doing when he subtly suggested I start turning to him, and praying for my friends, family, church, community, country and world. We need prayer. We need to pray. Our heavenly Father is there, listening, loving and waiting.

1 John 5:14, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5: 14b-18, "Encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

All photos courtesy of pixabay.com