Grace, Truth, and Love

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will begin a 21-day fast tomorrow, Monday, May 26, 2025. I am inviting you to join me, or to read along, even if you don’t participate. If you decide to fast with me or on your own, I need to share a disclaimer borrowed from the front matter of Jentezen Franklin’s book, Fasting (2008), as it applies to the content here on this website, as well. Bracketed phrases are my additions:

The material contained in this [blog] is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, provide medical advice, or take the place of medical advice and treatment from your personal physician. The author [that’s me and anyone else cited in this blog] in no way claims to be a medical doctor. Readers [and listeners] are advised to consult qualified health professionals regarding fasting and/or treatment of their specific medical problems. Neither the publisher [where applicable] nor the author [or any other author whose works are cited here] is responsible for any possible consequences from any person reading [or listening to] or following the information in this [blog]. If readers [or listeners] are taking prescription medications, they should consult their physicians and not take themselves off medicines without the proper supervision of a physician.¹

There. No lawsuits, now, ok? Please make rational choices. What I’m blogging is what the Daniel Fast looks like in my life. You will probably need to adapt it to your own needs.

So, why am I doing this?

Because the future is just too big.

Again, to quote Jentezen Franklin,

When God has placed a dream inside you that only He can make possible, you need to fast and pray.²

I will get into the specific reasons I’m fasting as the next week unfolds. And by the way, I will be fasting from other things besides food. During a fast, the time that I would otherwise be spending on games or leisure that isn’t a direct investment in the Kingdom is devoted to the Lord, to prayer, and to the deeper study of His word. You may choose to cut just one of those things from your life while you fast, or all of them, depending on how you feel led.

Although I have fasted without one before, a menu helps to eliminate some of the anxiety I experience when I’m limiting my food choices. It tells me what I CAN eat, not what I can’t. I will be compiling my menu from a couple of different sources. I will use the most rudimentary tools so that anyone can do what I’m doing, but I’ll also provide links to some helpful resources. You can make your menu fancy if you want to; I just want mine to be functional.

Resources

I will be sharing excerpts from Kristen Feola’s The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (2010)³ and Susan Gregory’s The Daniel Fast for Weight Loss: A Biblical Approach to Losing Weight and Keeping it Off (2015),⁴ as well as Jentezen Franklin’s book, Fasting (2008).⁵ My use of Gregory’s book will not relate specifically to weight loss. Her insight spills over to bless others, as well.

For those who have go-to breakfasts and easy lunches at your fingertips, just having a dinner plan may be enough. For me, I need to see the whole kaboodle, so I’ve pulled recipes from both sources to make a menu for the first week of the fast. I am sensitive to grains, so my menu includes substitutions for those.

Week 1 Menu

Here’s the first draft. I apologize for the quality; the next one will be better. The planning side of me wanted to see a recipe for every slot; the part of me that has to live this out is going to make every meal stretch as far as possible, to minimize the expense and my workload, and I will plug in what we already have on hand that will work as a reasonable substitute for things that I would otherwise have to buy, such as cabbage (which we presently have in abundance) instead of several other kinds of vegetables.

Arrows indicate meals I’m moving from one slot to another. Did I mention that I don’t like to cook? Or that I really don’t have time for all this? It’s okay; it will get simpler. This is a necessary part of the process, for me. And it wasn’t really hard; I just moved back and forth between books, for the most part, plugging in the recipe for each type of meal. For Feola’s recipes, I chose not to venture beyond what she suggested for Week 1, to leave room for yummy surprises in future weeks.

I wanted to share this menu with you before I actually dive into it, as promised. I will update sporadically over the next several days, as there are other things I must attend to: I have a paper to write and a test to take.

I’d like to say that despite appearances, it’s not really about food. The more prepared I am beforehand, the less it becomes about the food. When I don’t have what I need, I start to get whiny, and I want to eat things I know I shouldn’t.

I want this journey to be a blessing to you out there, somehow, even if you choose not to fast. That’s why I’m sharing it. It’s not really about me, either; I want you to make it about you. I believe I’m just a willing catalyst for change, and I’m just passing along a tool that someone else shared with me, which I view as a gift directly from God, because fasting to renew my relationship with Him was originally His idea.

I’m going to try to be candid with you about my own struggles and insights, because I think they’re part of the journey all of us are on. I’m going to talk about my illness, my injuries, and their effects on my health, to help target some possible sources of inflammation in a common, American diet. I want to share my goals with you and the reasons I feel called in so many directions that it feels like nothing ever gets done. And this is the reason I’m fasting: to eliminate the barriers to loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to “walk worthy of the calling” (Eph. 4:1).

Remember: God’s purpose for fasting is liberty from bondage.

By the way, I just published a page of articles I’ve written, over the past few years, about Biblical sites. You can access them by going to the Biblical Locations tab in the site menu, or by checking out the Here’s What’s New section on the homepage. I hope to continue uploading media over the course of the next month. There is one video in particular that I hope to finish, but again, technol_o^gy…

Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention that I’m making Date Honey to have with my breakfast tomorrow: https://ultimatedanielfast.com/wprm_print/date-honey

Blessings!

Jenni

1. Franklin, Jentezen. Fasting (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2008), Front Matter.
2. Fasting, pp. 3-4.
3. Feola, Kristen. The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
4. Gregory, Susan. The Daniel Fast for Weight Loss (Grand Rapids: Tyndale Momentum, 2015).
5. Franklin, Jentezen. Fasting (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2008).
6. The Daniel Fast for Weight Loss, p. 140.