It all started one Wednesday. A group of my friends were discussing the idea of fasting “criticism.” We’d just read an excerpt[i] by author Catherine Marshall on the topic. God impressed on her that she had a critical spirit and was to give it up for one whole day.

Objections crowded her mind. What about righteous judgment? But God brushed her resistance aside. “Just obey Me without questioning: an absolute fast on any critical statements for this day.”

At first she felt empty, as if her personhood had been erased. Around the lunch table with her talkative family, topics concerning the judicial system and the institutional church emerged and she had to suppress her barbed comments. It seemed that no one missed her penetrating observations! She didn’t understand what God was doing…Continue reading