Today, we’re diving into the transformative power of fasting and tithing. Inspired by a heartfelt conversation with my friend Nicole, we’ll explore how these ancient biblical principles can strengthen your faith and deepen your connection with God. Whether you’re curious about the spiritual benefits of fasting or the blessings that come from faithful tithing, this episode is packed with insights and personal stories that highlight the profound impact of these practices.
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All right. Today's episode is inspired by a conversation that I had with my friend Nicole at the beginning of the week. I was talking to her about some things that she was, you know, following up with me and saying like, how's this going? How's that going? And I was like, Oh, you know what? Like Neil fasted for us last week and, um, we got the answer that we needed.
And she was like, have you ever talked about that? And I was like, like, talked about what? And I was like, she said, you know, fasting and tithing. And we were talking about these tools that you can use, like literal action items that you can use to strengthen your faith and your connection with God. And, and I was like, I don't know that we ever have.
So that is today's topic. I'm sure there's somebody that's listening to this going, what is fasting? And what is, well, yeah, fasting, I feel like has become kind of pop culture as far as like weight loss. Yes. Or even just like a health thing, you know, a fast for, you know, a health purpose or whatever, but which I think there are health benefits, but the way that we're talking about it is in a spiritual sense and a biblical sense, you know, how God uses fasting and tithing to work with his people.
to accomplish certain things. So this is something that's taught in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's not just something particular to our faith, which I think is cool. We're always really looking for ways that we can unite believers instead of, you know, have, Differences or focus on differences and this friend Nicole that I was talking to is not a member of our church But she's a Christian and so she knew that that was a you know Staple foundation of our faith and it is of hers too.
And so anyway, we talked about you know, some of the biblical origins of this. And there's, so there's a scripture in Genesis, blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. So in Genesis, you know, very beginning of the Bible, it talks about tithing and tithing as we define it as one 10th of your increase.
So whatever you are You know, and so not just, I had to learn this when I was kind of a baby, brand new business owner, not just the money that's coming into the business that then you use to pay for business expenses, but whatever we're using as our personal income or increase, then we pay 10 percent of that back to the church.
And this is something that even, um, this is probably like the, um, Best known scripture about this in Malachi bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be Meat in mine house and prove me now Herewith say it the Lord of hosts if I will not open You the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it And the two things I love about that are number one where he's like prove me Like, try me, I, it will work.
And then, you know, I'll open the windows of heaven. There won't be room enough to receive all the blessings that I want to give you. And I feel like we've seen that in our life over and over again, although maybe not in the way that I would have pictured hearing that scripture as a little kid, like, Oh, you pay your tithing.
You just automatically have like so much money. You don't know what to do with it. It's kind of where my brain went when I would hear that as a kid, but it's, it looks a little bit different, you know, as an adult. And we were talking about how probably if you're listening to this, most likely 98 percent of people probably feel like, well, this applies to me, but probably not to my neighbor or another person, or these people have it easier or that person has it better.
But you and I were talking about how, unless you are like, You have family wealth and even then there's, that has its own challenges. Almost everyone has financial needs or stresses of some sort, no matter what industry you're in. So like for us, you know, we're in like a pretty much all sales based business where everything we do with mid arrow.
Is, you know, reliant on sales, even like our partnerships, like a year long partnership that that means like those businesses have to choose us and decide to partner with us for an extended period of time. And then when we're selling certain goods or products or whatever, and recommending them to people and we get an affiliate percentage of that, that's still sales.
All of that is super volatile and that's what you dealt with in your earlier career too in medical device sales. Just the up and down, you know, rollercoaster of it's never quite perfectly predictable, right? Yeah. No, it's just, I mean, I was in straight commission sales for a long time. So that basically means like you eat, eat what you kill, I guess is the best way to put it to where you're not paid a base, like there's no guaranteed payment and then you get.
Whatever commission's on top of that. It's like you make a sale, you get a percentage and that's it. And so if it's great, it can be really good on the upside, but it, but it ebbs and flows, it's up and down and so on those, those Valley months or whatever it is, like it can be really stressful. And so. There are ways that you're trying to mitigate that and having reserves on hand to be able to balance it out.
And it's, there's a, there's a lot of, of measures, but it can be really volatile and, and there can be a high level of stress. And I think that what we were talking about before this was in every profession, every industry, or in any scenario, there's stresses that are going to be the similar stress. With, you know, maybe a potential change, but maybe a different form of it.
It's going to look a little different. Right. Well, and I think the trade off is it's almost always a grass is greener, right? So somebody in sales might be like, gosh, it'd be so nice to just have like a consistent check every month, you know what you're getting, but then a lot of people that I know who are in careers that way.
You know, with that set up, they think to themselves, like, I wish I could just work harder and have a better month. And no matter what, my check is the same. And the only way that I'm going to make more is if somebody likes me or notices that I'm working hard and I happen to be promoted, maybe at the end of the year, maybe I'll get a bonus.
Maybe I won't, you know, so that can feel like its own set of challenges. And then I think too, it's so easy to be like, well, if you only had like a, Big position. If only you were a doctor or a lawyer, well, guess what? Like doctors that I know live most of them. I mean, there, there might be like a select few whose families paid for their entire education, but.
Most doctors come out of medical school with, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that it takes them half of their career to pay off. And so that debt lives with them for, you know, decades following when they finally get out of school for after, I mean, the average doctor is in school for, I don't know how many years.
It's a long time. I mean, it varies. Right. It depends on if you specialize. Yeah, like if you're an anesthesiologist, that's going to be super different than if you're like a general practice doctor, but either way, most doctors that I know, that's, that's a financial challenge for them that if you, you know, are in sales, you most likely don't have.
As heavy of a school debt burden. And then like, you know, you're, I grew up with a dad as a lawyer who like, yeah, that sounds really great and stable and wonderful, but he taught me too. Like as. Uh, the type of law that he practiced, patent law, is not the same as like a divorce lawyer. Like the, just because you're a lawyer doesn't mean that you just automatically sit in this like highest bracket of people that are paid and, you know, it's super different depending on are you in a huge law firm?
Are you, you know, in an independent law firm? And then even if you are in a big law firm, like There's people above you that are deciding all kinds of things like who's getting what dividends at the end of the year and who's getting promoted into a partnership. And like, I mean, there's just so many stressful things with money with almost.
Any industry that you're in and then we were talking about even okay, let's say that you are in like a family money situation We were talking about Downton Abbey love Downton Abbey that we both love But how in the middle of that series they face like near financial ruin because of like one bad deal Yeah, but they like invest in the railroad, like the American railroad or Canadian railroad or something and it, and it goes south and they put all of their money into that feeling like it was guaranteed and it doesn't work out and Robert loses, like, He's about to lose everything.
He almost loses the entire family fortune and then they've got to like go and figure out how to, you know, fix kind of some of the systems and processes with the estate and their workers and the people and their tenants and all this stuff. But yeah, it's a great example. Like everybody faces or can potentially face.
You know, financial challenges in one way or another. Or even like a money stress that, I mean, I know a CEO who was talking to me right when inflation kind of really started to blow up and I was telling him at the time we had like six or seven employees and I was telling him how like, You know, it's really stressful to feel like you have to not only feed your family, but feed these other families that rely on pretty much like what I'm doing to provide enough for everybody's families.
And he was like, Oh, Corinne, like that sounds like a dream, like having six or seven employees. He had several hundred that he was in charge of and he was like, inflation is so hard on a big company because suddenly you have all these people where the market is, is demanding like Chick fil A is paying people.
whatever, 18 an hour starting. And so he's like, that affects how much we're paying all of these people. And there has to be enough money to pay all the people, but the people need more money because now things cost more. And so even that kind of a stress, like if you're a person that is just a, you know, Clock in clock out, you get your check every month.
You don't have to think about how do we pay. All these people and maybe we have to lay people off or things that like somebody at the top of a huge corporation is going to have to think about that's an enormous money stress. So I just feel like no matter what. People are going to have money stresses in some form.
And one of the biggest blessings that I feel like has connected us to God, to almost create a partnership with him is paying tithing. Because to me, it has always felt like if we pay our tithing and if we are really trying to do what's right, then like God's going to provide a way or show us or show us a different way.
Show us like, okay, let's make a pivot here. Let's change and do this instead. Let's lean into, you know, this. Other thing or whatever and I feel like paying our tithing has Has continuously strengthened that partnership with God, where like he says in Malachi, like, prove me and I will open the windows of heaven.
Yeah. And it's something that in one form or another, like in the, in the Bible, they talked back in, in the biblical times it was a, it was sacrifice. They were like literally doing like animal sacrifices, which we don't do anymore. The believing that Christ came fulfilled that law. So now it's a different form of sacrifice, but tithing.
The concept is everything we have comes from God, if you really look at it. If you have that belief system in God and he created all things, then all things are essentially his other than our own will. Right. And so we are just giving back to him or showing a sacrifice on our part, um, and an appreciation for those gifts.
And by so doing that, it helps us or can provide spiritual strength or different blessings or things that come in. Amen. Amen. And so it's really amazing to, to see it that way. And I think that. That's always been my vision of it is like I've, I've had a good relationship with tithing over the years. I've loved to pay that and it's been something that, that, you know, writing that check or making that transfer or whatever, like it feels, it feels good.
I feel that strength and not only that, it's just unbelievable. How many times, especially being in a situation where pretty much most of my life or all of my life I've been in commission based industries or sales or something where it's, it's not a consistent, like you just get your same amount every month and, and you know what you're going to get.
Um, I can't remember, like there have been so many times and I, especially when I was in college and doing medical sales and I was paying my way through college working, you know, working a sales job and it would be like a slow month and I had to pay for tuition and I would be freaking out. I'm like, man, how am I going to make this work?
And I got to pay like thousands of dollars at, you know, at the university of Utah. Like, what am I going to do? Um, and I would pay my tithing. And then all of a sudden there would be like a hospital would call and they're like, Hey, we need a bunch of your stuff or they would buy. You know, a bunch of my products and I would get commission off of it.
And that would enable me to pay for school that semester or, I mean, things like that would happen. And there's so many stories of that. There's so many times I can't even think of an example cause it's just constantly happening and still continues to happen where it's like, There's a dip or there's a change or, you know, the, you're experiencing the fault, the volatility of a small business, which is what we, you know, we're, we're basically essentially small business owners.
Um, and you know, or, or there's a massive change where there's a need and then, you know, we pair tithing and then out of almost seemingly Thin air exactly in the amount, like, this is crazy. This has happened literally this year a few times where it's like, okay, we need this exact amount of money to, you know, pay overhead or do whatever.
And then boom, it shows up in the exact amount that we needed. And, and that's just not coincidental. That's not just like, wow, that's lucky. Like it's happened so many times that it's undeniable. Yeah. Well, I remember last year when we went out to Hawaii, we really felt like we were supposed to film and.
That hasn't turned out to be anything yet. I still believe that it will be someday, but we filmed this film project talking about addiction recovery and it was something that we were like really prayerful about. We felt like we were supposed to do it. So we did it, we paid for it. And then there was a company that owed us money who like now we're getting like their bankruptcy.
Um, notices, but like they just didn't pay us what they owed us and then you were like, uh, we're gonna be short on what we need to cover all of our expenses, all of our business overhead that month and it was stressful. And then right after that, it was like maybe a day later. We got a check for the exact amount that we needed from a company who we didn't even know they owed us money.
Do you remember that? Yeah. And it was like, oh my gosh, how could that have even happened? And it just was like, we pay our tithing. I felt like because we were, you know, totally willing to do that film project even though it wasn't, Like we knew exactly why and and maybe that was maybe it will be nothing.
Maybe I don't know Maybe it was just like a test of our faith But that's one example that I thought of immediately when you said like exact amounts where you know there was a need because Someone just didn't pay us and then something else that we totally didn't even, it wasn't even on our radar dropped in like at the exact time that we needed it.
Yeah. And that's happened so many times. Yeah. Like not just once. And I, I think that, you know, you can. You have the cynical, you can hear kind of the cynics of like, Oh, okay, well, you're just going to magically get this. And it's like, so I'm going to, I'm going to give this 10 percent and you're telling me that just magically what I need is going to show up.
Um, and honestly, that's been, that's been my experience. Like that is what has happened. Like it. And, and there are times where it's like, yeah, in, in my family, my parents were school teachers, um, we had six kids. And so. You know, they're, they don't, they're not paying school teachers a ton of money, unfortunately.
Um, and so there were times that were, yeah, it was tough. And, but my parents were consistent about paying their tithing and they share like really cool examples. And I remember my dad's basically saying, you know, it was early in their marriage. They had a bunch of little kids. And he's like the, you know, the cupboards were looking pretty thin as far as kind of how he put it as far as food goes.
And so he, you know, they, they paid their tithing and he fasted and, um, he, out of the blue, he's got a very recognizable voice and he does a lot of voiceover stuff where he has in his, You know, he's theatrical background. So he got a call from some company to do a voiceover and they paid him some money and, and that it was out of the blue and it enabled them to, you know, get food for that month and what they needed and, um, just really cool examples and, and things like that.
Yeah. Well, my grandpa really, I mean, there've been many adults and. Parent, parental type figures and obviously my parents who taught me tithing, but for whatever reason, like my grandpa and his stories really stand out to me too. And they're a little bit different than what you're talking about where it was like a need that was fulfilled in an out of the blue way.
He more talked about like, he very much believed that. All of the prosperity and he was really prosperous in his career and in a lot of the business ventures that he did. He believed that every one of them was because he paid tithing. Always, every time that he talked about anything like that, he tied it to these blessings didn't come from me.
Like he, he was big on hard work. Like we work hard. If you're a foster, you work hard. Like I was definitely born and bred that way. Like it is, you know, essential to a happy life and a fulfilled life and to make the most of who you are and what you do on this earth is to wake up and work hard every day.
But the, the fruits of that labor and the. Finding a lot of prosperity or success every single time he tied it back to, and I paid my tithing and this is why the Lord blessed me, like Malachi says, like more than I could even receive. And so that's something that I always think of too, where he was so quick to acknowledge that the blessings came from God and they were tied to paying tithing.
Yeah, it's, it's really like, and what I love about it is it's such a, it's such a powerful tool that you can use. It's a very proactive, you know, powerful thing that you can, you can do. It's like concrete, it's, it's very, you know, a lot of things are kind of concepts or principles that you're striving to live by and apply in your life.
This one is so direct where it's like, okay, 10%. You know, I pay it, um, to my church and, and, and it's not about like, for me, I don't think about, well, like, well, what are they doing with that? Like I, there are explanations for that. And there are like physical representations of, of things that buildings and that our church does a lot of temples, um, which is kind of a special place that, that we go to, to make promises and, and, you know, And things, um, and they also give, and they give like billions of dollars to humanitarian efforts.
And there's, you know, they, they're pretty transparent about, about what happens with that, but it's more for, and I believe the whole principle is it's more for us. It's more, it's not because God needs money. It's because we need. To sacrifice, like we need to push ourselves spiritually to, to learn how to trust in God and consistently doing that each month, um, you know, rain or shine and it's a percentage.
So it's, it's kind of the same for everybody. Um, it helps us to build faith. Right. And to trust in God and learn how to trust in God. And then when you see those blessings come in and they'll have those stories and evidences that that's exactly what it is, is it's like concrete evidence of God's blessings.
And it's not just like, well, how do you know? You're like, well, I think it's great. I think it'll work. You can cite these examples and pull together a bank of evidence that builds faith. And it's like, man, I've, I've got a pool, a bank of faith. That I can draw from when things are challenging and tough, because I've had so many experiences paying tithing or using this principle and seeing the blessings that come from it.
Yeah. Well, let's shift to fasting too, because this was the other part of the conversation that I had with my friend and, um, fasting is something that. has never been easy for me. I, I mean, I, I don't know for some people, I know some people say like, Oh, I love fasting. Like that's never been something that I've enjoyed or that has come easily, but I've definitely felt it's really interesting to me.
I feel like when I do fast, It breaks you down physically in a way that you feel more to me. I feel more sensitive to the spirit and I feel like I'm communicating with God like that, that sometimes it feels like there's like a concrete ceiling trying to get through to, you know, hear what he needs you to hear or feel loved or, you know, feel those things.
I feel like fasting kind of like dissipates. that ceiling and it's easier to feel connected to God for me. But the way that we teach it or the way that we believe in it is to give up two meals typically or 24 hours. You know, some people do a 24 hour fast. Some people give two meals and you give the money that you would have spent on those meals in like a fast offering is what we do.
And we give that to our, our local church leader or bishop. And then during those two hours, or two hours, during those two meals you're, I always try to open it with a prayer and with intention and, you know, either asking God for a specific blessing that I need or that someone else needs. Um, I've even fasted in just gratitude, just fasted and like, Lord, I don't need anything right now.
I'm just trying to show gratitude and humility and I want to be connected. To, you know, to heaven, to my heavenly father and my savior, Jesus Christ. And I feel like there've been so many blessings that I've received from fasting and that we've received. You were telling me a really cool story that I had never heard earlier about a fasting experience that you had.
No, I think, well, when we were going to get married, or we were talking about getting married and we were dating, um, I remember it was, I was fasting that day. It was a Sunday. We, in our church, we have kind of like a, um, one day, the first Sunday of the month we'll set aside as like a day to fast and do that.
And then there's like a special meeting for our church where we'll do like a, we can kind of share our feelings or they call it a testimony meeting where you just talk about, it's kind of like sharing. Yeah. It's open mic. Open, open mic. I love, yeah. One of my buddies said open mic. I'm like, Oh, that's great.
Um, or, or talk about your spiritual feelings or whatever. Um, so we, we did this, it was a fast Sunday and I'd fasted to know if it was right for us to get married, for me to marry you. And I remember I finished my fast, um, I, you know, and usually I begin with a prayer at the same as you were talking about and then end with a prayer.
And then that whole time I'm going without food and water between those. You know, those prayers for the whole day. Um, and so I finished my fast and then I, you know, kind of talked to my dad. I'm like, dad, what do you think? Like, am I, how do you know, how did you know mom was the right person? And he gave me some great advice and some input and, but ultimately like left it.
In up to me, you know, um, and then we went, I went over to your house at the time we had some dinner and I remember we just started talking and we were talking about it because we talked about, um, you know, like, should we get married? Like this, this feels right. And let's, and I think. Um, I'm just so analytical and so can be so challenging in that those scenarios and making choices that I was like analysis paralysis.
And so you're like, well, let's write it down. Let's make a list of pros and cons of us, our relationship and us getting married. And I still have this sitting in my closet. It's framed, it's classic. Um, so Corinne was the scribe and, and so she started out with prose, I'm like, let's write out prose. So we went back and forth and like, what's going on?
Um, and so we make this list, we get to the end of it and then it's like, all right, well, now all the cons, what, what are the cons? And I could not think of a single thing. Um, and you couldn't think of a single thing and it was just a stupor of thought when we went to talk about the cons or like why we shouldn't get married.
And then there's just like a blank. Yeah. Yeah. There's a blank. There's like a first blood point and then there's nothing. On the con side of this paper that I have in the, in my closet. Um, and so then I was like, well, okay, well let's, I believe in prayer and I believe God will give us answers. Like let's pray and ask if this is right.
Um, and so we prayed and we had this really cool experience. It was super powerful and it was pretty undeniable for both of us. Like, Hey. This is it. Um, and that was really cool, but I really feel like because of being broken down physically, you're going out, you know, going without food and going without water for that span of a time, like your body's kind of start screaming at you after a while.
And every time you feel that, you're thinking of what you're doing and why. And so when I feel those, you know, hungry or whatever, I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm fasting. And Oh yeah, this is what I'm fasting for. And then, you know, you're submitting your, your body to the will of the spirit. Instead of the other way around where it's like you're letting the, you know, your physical rule, the spiritual.
So it's such a powerful, powerful thing. Um, and I think of Christ doing that before he started his ministry. He fasted 40 days and 40 nights. I'm like, you got to be Jesus Christ to be able to do 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. Um, but, It's such a powerful, powerful tool that I've seen, you know, if there's a real need in my life, or there's a question where it's like, man, I really need an answer here, or we really need help in this area, whether that be, um, for a fam, my family, for somebody else, physically, spiritually, um, financially, whatever, whatever it is.
This is such a powerful tool and really spiritually brings a lot of cool things, um, that God would have us give from that. form of sacrifice. Right. And I have had some really cool experiences also being part of award fast, you know, where our whole entire congregation fasts for one united purpose, I think that can be a really cool experience too, if we've done that for people who are sick, people who've, you know, had like a child with cancer or things like that.
And that's. Also really cool. I feel like it unites a group and you know, when that's appropriate, when like the Bishop or whoever feels like that's something that we could ask a whole group to do, or, or even like as a family, you know, we've done that as a family or as a couple and. So I feel like that can be really uniting to, to do that as a group or, or to have, I've even had friends like a group text that goes out to like a group of friends who's like, Hey, I'm really struggling with this.
If you're looking for something to fast for, will you please fast for. you know, this person or this purpose. And I feel like that's been a really sweet and tender experience to be able to be part of that for other people too. And I love, like, I love the, again, just, there's a really cool biblical verse that talks about fasting.
This is in Isaiah 58. Um, someone showed this to me actually when I was a missionary, there's the mission leaders who, That's what your parents are doing right now in the Philippines. So the, the, one of the mission leaders, the sister, um, who was leading the mission, she shared this with us and, and this is Isaiah 58.
There's a few different verses I'm going to read here, six and, and, uh, and a couple other ones, but says, is, is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens. And to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke. Really, really cool. So those are the things that, that you can be blessed.
Loose bands, undo heavy burdens, let oppressed go free, break every yoke. And then it talks about, Uh, more about it, Isaiah goes more in depth. Um, so once we do this and we, we complete our fast, he talks about, Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteous shall go before thee.
The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I, here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaketh, and well, then he goes into some other stuff here, but, Um, the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought.
And make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. So very classic Isaiah, kind of very poetic, but you get the gist of it and it's pretty direct. Um, breaking every yoke bond, you know, freeing yourself from bondage, making fat thy bones, satisfying thy soul in drought.
Like that could be figuratively. That could also be. Physically. Like, um, but it just, you get a feel for how powerful that is. And it's the type of, of tool that I've seen in my life that when there's a big challenge, it's kind of, you know, you're pulling out the big spiritual guns, so to speak. And fasting is, is for sure.
One of the big ones. Yeah. I always think of Esther. When I think about fasting and how she had this just exceedingly great faith, where she was presented with a huge problem. If you've never read Esther in the Bible, I love her. She's totally a hero of mine, her own, whatever. And so she is presented with this problem where she marries the king, but then the king is convinced to create this law where all Jews will be killed.
And then that's a problem because she's a Jew and all of the people she, all of her people are Jews. So she goes to them and says, uh, I need to talk to the king about this, this law that was created and so I need you all to fast. And she asks them to fast because she's like, this is going to work if you fast.
Um, so she does that, they fast and then she's able to talk the King out of this law that is going to kill all the Jews. And so she saves her people by fasting basically, and not just fasting herself, but also going to others and saying, will you do this with me? And let's all collectively bring our faith together and fast for one purpose.
So I think that's really cool too, how you can have exceedingly great faith in the power of fasting and, and not just try to do it yourself, but also ask for help. You know, she had the humility to ask others for help. I think sometimes it can be like, oh no, like don't bother people. Like don't, don't ask them for something that we need or that I need.
But I mean, obviously this was a pretty big need. There were people were going to be killed and it did directly benefit them. But still the fact that she used that leadership and that faith to say, if we do this, we And God will help us. And then he did is a really cool example of someone using their faith and putting it into action.
And that's, you know, what we're talking about here with tithing and with fasting being these tools that we can use. It's not just something that was written about in the Bible. And it's like, Oh, that's nice. Like that, you know, that works then like it works now and it can work for any faith challenge, big or small, that you're facing.
And I think it is so great that we have that opportunity to do it monthly in our faith tradition. But you also don't have to wait for a fast Sunday. You can do it anytime. I mean, we've done it, you know, whenever, in the middle of the week, on a weekday, you know, it doesn't have to be the first Sunday of every month.
It can be any day of the week. Anytime you need it. Yeah, no, I love, I love that whole, the whole principle and concept of it. And I, I think it can be one that when, when it's really sincere, uh, cause I, one thing for me is I think it can, if it turns routine, sometimes it can get like that for me. Like, okay, um, we do it first Sunday of the month.
Here we go. It's fast Sunday. And it's almost like, oh man, that's fast Sunday today. Sometimes like if I'm being honest, sometimes it's like, I'm getting caught off guard. I'm like, I can't eat my bowl of cereal that I just poured. And all right, let me get in the zone. Let me pray. Or what do I need to think about?
But I think the times when fasting has been really, really powerful for me is when there's been a need. And then it's like, I'm mentally and emotionally, like spiritually preparing for it. So it's like the night before I'm really identifying what it is that I need. And I'm specific about what it is. Like, you know, I'm looking for this blessing, if this is right.
And praying about it, and so waking up the next morning, I'm already like in my fast, you know, and, and going, and then, um, I think the time for me is really powerful as well. Um, I've, I've, I think obviously if physical requirements are going to be different, like if you've got a medical issue or something, you don't want to be, you know, Not everyone should be fasting.
Like, obviously you gotta be aware of that. Um, but that, that process of, of really being intentional and, and approaching it in a, a sincere, intentional way gives it so much power and, and more strength for me. Um, then I, I admittedly, there have been a lot of times where I've been casual about it and it's, it's, um, still awesome though, even in those, even just Casually, it still is a great thing, like I still feel the strength and the, and the blessings from it.
I guess I feel a little different where you're saying like, Oh, my, my best fasts are always like when I start the night before and, and I could see that. I feel like a lot of times if I'm caught in that situation where I'm like, Oh, it's fast Sunday and then I'm tempted not to do it. Those are typically the times when I need it the most and a lot of times when there's the potential to have the greatest spiritual experiences is when I feel like Satan really tries to tempt me to be like, you don't have to do that this week.
Nobody's going to know it's fine. You know, there's a lot of times where I feel like that's been the temptation, but if I push through that. And it's that same way with going to church, or I had a seminary teacher that would tell me that like, when you are tempted to skip seminary and you want to go the least, that's when you need it the most.
Like when you feel like, Oh, I just really don't want to do this today, there's probably a reason why the devil is trying so hard to get you to not do it. And so a lot of times when I've pushed through that and I've just done it anyway, it's like There's a really sweet, sweet reward waiting at the end.
Even if that's just feeling like broken down, humbled and closer to God and just feeling like, Oh, I'm so glad that I did that today. Because now I feel so much closer to my heavenly father. And I feel like that communication line is clear, you know, that like spiritual wifi signal that I've. Talked about in the past, but if I, if you haven't heard me talk about that before, I, I really like to use this example with the youth because they get it immediately because they all have a device where they've had to hook up to wifi before and they know, you know, if you go to the wrong end of the house or you walk outside or you're too far away or whatever, suddenly your signal just isn't as strong.
You're not going to be able to like, have your messages go through or download something or whatever. But if you walk right up next to that wifi signal, Then, you know, your messages go through really fast and, and the signal's really strong. And it's the same way with God, like when we do things like tithing, like fasting, reading our scriptures, praying, whatever, those things all bring us closer and closer and closer to Him, to that.
And then your wifi, your spiritual wifi signal is really strong. But you know, if we drift away, if we kind of like get a little more lax on those things, if we're not like making as much of an effort, it's not that he doesn't love us as much, it's that we're just kind of drifting and just like a, a wifi signal.
If you're not as close, it's just not gonna be as strong. And so I think that is the reason why when I'm. You know, maybe I'm a little farther away for whatever reason, and it's like, ah, I don't really feel like fasting today. If I do it and it brings me closer, then it just, it feels really good at the end.
And a lot of times it's what I needed even more than I realized before. You know, yeah, I love if you're like a Steven Covey, seven habits person running, sharpening the saw. I think spiritually it's the same thing. We have like a spiritual saw that there's so much of life that it just doles it out and chips it away.
And like, if it's not, if I'm not sharpening my spiritual saw, Constantly, like it just, it, things don't happen. Um, and so fasting is consistently is, man, I come out of that spiritually feeling so sharp and so connected and, and everything is, you know, I think that's the best way that I could put it as I just feel sharpened up spiritually.
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