Daniel Fast - Day 4

I want coffee.

Really, really bad.

Today I attended two breakfast meetings - both served coffee. I had lunch in my favorite restaurant - they serve great coffee. I drove past Starbucks not once, or twice but four times today - no lattes. I could pass up the pastries at breakfast, the homemade sandwich rolls at lunch, and the mini-donuts at Starbucks with no problem. But oh, how I've struggled with coffee today!

Today's struggle led me to thinking about needs and wants. I certainly didn't need coffee today, just as most days none of us need caffeinated drinks, sugary desserts, fried foods and processed, prepackaged meals. But we do want them for a variety of reasons, most of them related to convenience, weak resolve, stress, or bad habits we keep.

This reflection led me to Daniel 1. This first chapter of the book of Daniel describes how Daniel and his friends arrived in Babylonia and how they secured their place of honor in the king's court. They did it by fasting. Daniel and his friends were ordered to be served the royal rations - heavy food, particularly meat and wine - during their three-year apprenticeship. Daniel and his friends did not want to defile themselves with this food - most likely it contained food forbidden by God's law, such as pork. So they asked if they could only eat vegetables and drink water.

This passage very clearly points to the difference between our wants and our desires, particularly when they are rooted in God's desire for us and our wants for ourselves. Daniel and his friends were leaders in Israel; they were used to being offered the highest quality and quantity of food and wine. It would have been easy, convenient and in many cases enjoyable to eat the royal rations that were offered in abundance.

However, they chose to avoid what they wanted, what was easy for them, and instead to take on what God needed them to do - remain pure and undefiled, following God's commands. That meant eating a diet that was simple and pure. They initially did it for 10 days to prove to the king's overseers that God would protect and nourish them. After 10 days, they were the healthiest of the bunch and allowed to continue this diet not fro 21 days - but for three years! God blessed them and gave them favor and they were allowed into the king's inner sanctum and given positions of power and authority from which they could protect their people and serve and honor God.

During this Daniel Fast, how is God asking you to choose between the wants and needs in your own life, not with food, but with other aspects that lead to obeying and honoring God? May this time of fasting be a time for you to discern your wants and God's needs in a way that brings you blessing and favor.