Congratulations 🎊 

Hi everyone, it’s a pleasure to write to you today. I hope you are all fine by God’s grace.
Today’s post is a congratulations post to all of you who have decided (or are about to decide) to fast this easter.
There are several types of fast :

• abstaining only from food (liquid and solid) except for water
• food and water fast
• partial fast:abstaining from certain types of food for example meat. A typical example is the Daniel fast
• extraordinary fasts (40 days non-stop without food and without water for example)

For a detailed study on the types of fasts mentioned in The Bible  please right-click on this link 

There are even other types of fast which do not involve abstaining from food but rather abstaining from certain things which we really love (or which we are addicted to) in order to focus on praying  and adoring God (rather than adoring those things and or people which or who obsessed us).
Some examples of things you could abstain from :

• Shopping; if you love that too much or if you have noticed that you spend too much or that you are a shopping addict.
• Television; in case you are a TV addict like me and need to learn to discipline yourself .
• Gossiping ; in case you are the one giving all the dirty and crispy news about everyone to other people.  
• Lying ; I am not saying  that after lent you should indulge back in lying (or any other sin you abstain from)  I mean, lying is a sin,but during lent you can exercise yourself to cultivate the habit to tell the truth.
• Wearing certain clothes; clothes which you know are either indecent or borderline in-between cute and indecent. During this period you can learn to avoid such clothes.
• Negative confessions : This is mostly for those who think and confess negative things 24/7, learn to start praising God and making positive confessions in line with His Word.
• Criticism; In case you are always raising every flaw in everyone, it’s the perfect occasion to learn how to accept people as they are, to thank God for having them in our lives and to encourage them and consciously celebrate their efforts by telling them how proud you are of them. Actually, with God’s help, you can make someone change by doing this, and even if the person doesn’t change, something will have changed in you, and you will be able to live better with them.  
• Getting furious (angry, violent etc); during this lent period you can learn to express your frustration in calm and peaceful ways rather than bursting out into anger. You can learn anger management by God’s grace. 

No matter the type of fast you choose this year, remember four things. 
1. You can’t serve God without God: In order to achieve all those wonderful things you’ve set as standards for your fast during this lent, you won’t be able to achieve it and have a change in you if you count on your own strength and righteousness rather than counting on Christ Jesus’ strength and righteousness, and on The Holy Spirit. 
Zechariah 4:6 KJV

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.  

2. Your fast should change something in you : In The Old Testament, people mostly undergone fasting to obtain forgiveness from God or to change His mind towards them, but now we fast for God to change something in us, to change our minds and our lives. 
God has already dealt with sin on The Cross. Through Jesus Christ’s death we are forgiven, His blood washes away our sins. If we fast it’s to change something in us, not to change God’s opinion about us, not to make God forgive us and be at peace with us. In Christ Jesus He has already accepted us and forgiven each of us, provided that we receive this forgiveness. 
3. All this is a spiritual exercise : During this lent period, the fasts you’ll make, the standards you will raise, the habits you will develop, will all be aimed at making you keep them and continuing in them, applying them in everyday life, not only during lent. 
4. Fasting should be sincere and should come from your heart:You can visit my page on how to fast pleasing God, here’s a link.  
Prayer
Eternal Lord King of glory please show me the areas of my life I need to work on during this lent period and help me ameliorate myself in order to be more Christ-like all to the glory of Your Name  in Jesus Christ‘s Name I pray amen. 
Thanks for reading,  please like and share. 
Happy Ash Wednesday. 
God bless you all.