“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12 NIV

As we watch the unfolding of events in the earth and the liberties that we have always known become limited, I sense in my heart that our Father is calling us back to His heart.

It is easy to follow the norm. Or to just go with the flow, but it takes intention and commitment to break out of the usual to follow after the Greater.

We know that God responds to the heart of the seeker. He turns His face toward the one who turns toward His heart toward Him. Yet, so often we question why our prayers aren’t answered, why the continual uphill battle in our lives? Could it be because we are doing this thing in our own strength? Could it be that the very One we say we are following has become someone we just speak of from previous experiences?

The Father is desiring that we experience Him in the present. That our lives be filled with the knowledge of His amazing and unstoppable power to work in all situations as we turn our hearts to truly knowing Him.

When we desire something in life, we become deliberate to make it happen. When we want something desperately we will sacrifice in order to have it. Do we want Jesus? Do we want Him to come into our moments and change our lives? To answer the deepest longings of our hearts? Of our communities? What are we willing to do to prepare a place for Him in our lives?

In my place of desperation I am ready to be deliberate. I want Him. I want His power to break through in my life, in His church, in my community, in my family, and in the world I presently live in. I desire to see less of me and my opinions and more of His power setting captives free.

So, to this end, I am committing to regular fasting once again. I would love to have you join me and make a step in our hearts together to return to Him with all our hearts. I am committing to each Tuesday in the present and will allow Him to direct what comes from this.

I am not seeking to publish our fasting, I am simply seeking to have anyone who will join us on this journey of seeking Him. Maybe, as we lift Him up, as we decrease, He can increase in our lives and the message we carry can once again turn the world right side up.

Consider the incredible blessing that comes to the one who makes Him their greatest treasure. Nothing we do to find Him will ever be wasted. He will always be faithful to the heart that turns to Him.