In the first chapter of Daniel, the royal house of Jerusalem has been taken captive by the Babylonians. Among those captured are Daniel and his buddies Rach, Shach, and Benny. They are inspected by a court official and qualify to serve in the king’s palace, but first they have to undergo a 3-year training course.
Their training was very detailed and included what they ate and drank. But in verse 8 it says “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.” He asked permission for himself and his friends to eat a diet of vegetables and water instead. He asked to try this experiment for ten days, and after that if they weren’t on par with the others, they’d change.
Of course at the end they were doing much better than everyone else, so the official changed everyone’s diet to veggies and water. I’ll bet there were some real unhappy campers after that change was made!
What if we took the same approach to the whole of our lives and tried a “Daniel Fast” for ten days? We cut some stuff out, and we add other stuff in its place. We journal our experience, and at the end we see how it affected us.
That’s the plan, and this is a challenge for you to take on your own this summer. Look at every area of your life, and try to be as extreme as you can be for just ten days. Be creative, think outside the box, and leave no stone unturned. If you’d like a guide to help you figure out how to do this, click here. Then cut out the “noise” in your life, and turn up the volume on God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.
Stick with this challenge and see if at the end of ten days you’re closer to God than you’ve ever been before!
