I've made it through the first day of my 40-day fast.  I can't help but wonder if it's okay to start counting down days or not?  If it is, then I've got 39 days to go!

Day one was a good day.  It was a low-key day.  Didn't go in to the office.  The kids laid around watching movies.  I spent some time working from home.  Not too much stress.

Physically I feel good.  Not too hungry.  My stomach did growl a couple of times as my wife prepared dinner for the kids, but nothing too serious.  No headaches or other physical complaints.

I spent a good amount of time in the Word this afternoon.  It was refreshing to read with a renewed purpose in my heart!  Something I feel convicted about and immediately plan to continue.

It was appropriate that our church reading tonight from Matthew 1-7 took me to the 40-day fast Jesus himself went through.  I became somewhat burdened as I realized the spiritual battle that was happening with him during this time.  In the same breath, great peace came to me with the words of Jesus in the same passage, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

I've always thought of that as Jesus saying, "I don't need food, I've got God."  Today it leapt out at me that the point really is, yes, we do need food.  We can't survive too terribly long without it.  So, what then is greater than our physical dependence upon food?  Our spiritual dependence upon God!

If we don't have food to eat, we die.  If we die without God, we live in eternity without God.

And so, then, every word that comes from the mouth of God is far more important than any morsel of bread that could go into mine.