As followers of Jesus, we grow closer to Him as we block out the world’s noise. Blocking out daily distractions by doing as Jesus called us to do in Luke 9:23 allows us to truly focus on Him and what He may ask of us. “And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” By taking up our cross daily, we put down things that might interfere and distract us from spending time with Him and hearing Him so that we may follow where He leads us. In this generation, it’s so easy to get distracted. From work to school, kids, social media, stress, relationship problems, or what may pop up throughout our day- it can be overwhelming and take control of our thoughts and our time.

In our walk with Jesus, there is a massive benefit to hitting the refresh button in our journey with Him. We get refreshed and reset through prayer and fasting in our spiritual walk. Fasting is a discipline that helps us as believers. It’s taking our focus off of something for a period of time, whether it be social media, television, food, etc. This allows us to focus our attention, time, and hearts on Jesus.   As John Piper once said, “Fasting is a physical exclamation point at the end of the sentences: ‘I need you! I want you! I long for you! You are my treasure! I want more of you!…’. “