We’ve entered the second week of the digital fast. How’s it going? What have you been noticing? This week, someone texted me that they looked at their screen time numbers, and last week’s screen time was down 56%! That’s awesome! If you’ve had a similar story of success (or even a story of struggle), we want to know!
As you fast, you may notice things shifting in you. The “withdrawals” of the first week may become the urges and pangs of this week. You may even feel compelled to give yourself back to browsing and endless scrolling. The natural response is to look at the urge, the symptom, to identify what’s visible. But in doing so, we miss what might be driving that compulsion, what is actually behind it, the motivation. What shows up as fruit should encourage us to examine its root. Ignoring the root will ensure the same fruit over and over again.
Fasting isn’t just about what we give up. It is also about what we might get in return. And in addition to the presence of God, friendship with Jesus, and the indwelling of the Spirit, it can also be a releasing of those things that have enslaved us. What “pain” are you experiencing in this fast? Is that something that you are trying to control through sheer force or willpower? Or is God inviting you to surrender those discomforts and pains so that in the long run, you might find true freedom?
This week can be about discovery. What moves us, what controls us, what might need releasing. And in discovering these things, we name them and release them and, in Jesus’ name, find freedom, healing, and forgiveness.
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