Rivers Crossing Community Church

In light of today's sermon by Pastor Paul I think it would be appropriate for me to write about how I feel physically because of the fast. I have an autoimmune disease that is related to rheumatoid arthritis. I have had a daily battle with pain since I was about seventeen years old. Since 2000 I have been taking subscription anti-inflammatory drugs on a daily basis. I have prayed for pain relief outside of drugs for years, but the pain is still there.

I love Coke. I absolutely love it. I would almost say that I am a slave to it.  Because of this strong relationship that I have with Coke a major part of my fast has been to be Coke free for three weeks. During the past week I have not taken my medicine, and I have been pain free. I am not saying that I am healed from my disease, but by taking better care of my body my pain has been relieved.

I was reminded last night that when we ask God for something He will often times require us to act in some fashion. For example, when the leper asked Jesus to heal him from his disease Jesus told the leper to go wash himself in the dirty Jordan River. The man acted and he was healed. Likewise, for my pain to lessen I need to act. I need to greatly reduce the amount of soft drinks that I drink. I need to take better care of myself then my request for my pain to be reduced outside of medicine will be answered.

I am not completely giving up Coke once the fast is over, but I will be cutting back on my Coke consumption drastically. Hey, I will probably even drink a bottle of water every once in a while.

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