Step Forward: Understanding a Daniel-Style Fast through Simple Language

By Robert De La Garza

The turning stomach, the headaches, the frustrations, the weariness, the expenses, the associated pain, the glory of God. Step Forward dives into the world of Daniel-style fasting by answering common questions asked by a common congregation, while exploring each feeling and emotion associated with adjusting your lifestyle with only one intention: to bring God glory. In a simple-to-follow language, the author speaks from scripture, accompanied by personal experience, shares his understanding, and offers over sixty recipes and meal ideas for one of the most difficult to accomplish tasks the Bible lays out for us: fasting. You will be challenged to look at fasting in a way that causes your entire life to stand up and step forward.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635759303

Book preview

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Step Forward

Robert De La Garza

Understanding a Daniel-Style Fast

Through Simple Language

ISBN 978-1-63575-929-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63575-930-3 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Robert De La Garza

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

To my wife Cherie for your unwavering faith, your endless belief in me and pushing me to be great with your deep love. For being my favorite teacher, my best friend and the one I get to do life with-

To my momma Cindy for your encouragement by showing your greatest strength while walking in your deepest valley and showing me what it looks like to love like Jesus does-

To my family for being a source of strength-

To Mikey and Jessica for your honest feedback and critiques while walking this out with me-

To Mark and Maebelle of MnMB Photography by Mark and Maebelle Barrett for giving me your entire Super Bowl Sunday to shoot thousands of photos just to ensure each image was beautiful-

To my publication specialist Cassy of Christian Faith Publishing for your wonderful attitude and patience towards my turtle-like pace-

To Linda for getting this entire process off the ground-

To my pastors for keeping the shepherd’s hook around my neck when I tried to wander-

Most importantly, to Jesus-

This is for you.

Preface

Preface

In January of each year, our church begins a corporate Daniel fast: a twenty-one-day period where we cut out all meats and food or drink that is artificial from our diets and spend our time in prayer. Many churches across the world will do a Daniel-style fast at the beginning of each year to submit the new year’s future plans to God, begin the year in His presence, and create a routine of prayer. We happen to be one of these.

Fasting is such a beautiful opportunity to experience God in a fresh way, but it also has its difficulties. I remember seeing one of our members in our parking lot talking about how difficult this fast had been for them, while eating a submarine sandwich with all the fixins’, all the sauces, all the seasonings, and a premade veggie patty with every preservative known to man straight from the sandwich shop.

When I asked what they understood the fast to be, they simply said, I don’t know. Isn’t it, like, no meat and no soda?

It was such a sincere and honest response all I could do was chuckle a bit—not a rude or judgmental chuckle, just a caught-off-guard one—give them a hug, and tell them I loved them and wanted to help them understand this fast according to scripture and according to the understanding God has given me. I also told them I’d like to give them a few ideas of what to eat during this fast.

Since I was in my youth, at the beginning of every year, the ministry I grew up in would do a twenty-one-day Daniel-style fast as mentioned in the book of Daniel chapters 1 and 10. The pastors and teachers from the ministry would spend much time at the beginning of each year helping us gain an understanding of what it meant to fast.

After going through the many teachings, after doing multiple fasts and personally having spent much time in prayer about fasting, I realized something: what I understand Daniel-style fasting to mean at this point in my life is almost completely different than what many, possibly even most, understand it to mean. It isn’t a deeper or better understanding, it’s simply different.

While this submarine sandwich–eating person was at one extreme of the eating spectrum, I’ve also seen others who buy full heads of lettuce or cabbage and eat them raw with a lemon squeezed over it for the duration of this fast. It’s possible that the measure of faith God has given them tells them to eat that way, or it’s quite possible that they do not have an understanding of this fast either. We’ll find out together that fasting is so much more than just cutting out food.

After sitting with this person and talking them through what I understood this fast to mean, why we do it in the first place, and how to go about adjusting to something like this for the first time, I realized it was necessary to give others an understanding as well. After there was an understanding, I gave this person some recipes, and we got to talking about food. For me, this is where the entire book idea was born. I accidentally said I’m gonna write a cookbook out loud. It turns out it’s more of a recipe book.

Since I was a child, I have always loved writing and wanted to write for a newspaper, and even though I can’t exactly say that I wanted to be a pastor, I always understood that this was the call on my life. I love to cook, though my wife can attest to the fact that sometimes I don’t do it very well. I never did write for the newspaper but did respond to the call of God on my life and am now a pastor.

One thing I’ve always taught is to submit your dreams to God and in His time He’ll give what He sees fit like, in 1 John 5:14–15, where it says, And this is the confidence that we have in Him: if we ask for anything according to His will, He listens to us. And if we know that He listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask Him for.

I took my dream of writing and my love of cooking and submitted them to Him. For months, I took this to prayer and finally got the green light to begin my recipe book. I thought that I’d write a small explanation or blurb about what a Daniel fast is, possibly a page or so, then go on to make the most colorful, albeit limited, recipe book from my past experiences. Thousands of words and multiple sections later, here we are.

I can unapologetically say that this book will probably be unlike any other book you’ve read in the past. The vernacular I use will be the same language God speaks to me in and the same language I use to communicate the things God has given me to others. I will use I more times than should be allowed and speak from my personal experiences based on scripture.

This will by no means be a formal language that you’d normally read in another book. I do not have a certain writing style I can identify with. There are certain phrases and things I want to put not only in your head but also in your heart, so I’ll often use repetition to put an idea in your head, give you some substance, remind you of the idea, give you more substance, and remind you of the idea again. I want these words to sink down and get into your bones.

My ultimate and really only goal I want to accomplish through this writing is to get you to fall in love with Jesus. I believe in speaking plainly so that I do not further complicate things. Every word you will read has been first prayed over, handwritten—oftentimes scribbled out—and prayed over again. After I typed this, I edited and prayed over it again. After that, I read it over; cut, copied, and pasted; moved things and thoughts around; and prayed over it again.

Everything you will read has come through prayer, fasting and was often written and typed with tears in my eyes as I reflect on the goodness of God. Some may be able to write like Paul, with much finesse and schooling, having studied at the finest institutions under the finest instructors while using the longest synonyms the thesaurus has to offer. I’m a little bit more like Peter: just a regular ole dude who loves to fish, and simply loves Jesus.

I may not have the résumé that others do, but I did not pour my heart into this so that you can know my name or so I can update my résumé. All this, is my life written on paper. It’s a reflection of who God has been to me, who He has been in my life, the things He’s ripped from me, the things I’ve surrendered to Him, the freedom He has put on me, and the understanding about His Word that He has given me. This is intended to bring Him glory and help give an understanding.

I will only speak to you from the level of understanding God has