Car Accidents and Seat Belts

This week I learned that crazy things happen and if we look with
spiritual eyes we can see why.

Car accidents are no fun.
They are especially no fun when driving 65 mph down the Interstate.
It was April 2011 and I was driving to work in my little Honda Civic.
For reasons unknown to me 

(no other car involved, no blown tire, no
blasting music, and no ice) 

I lost control.
After hitting the dividing wall my car turned, hitting the wall a few
more times...
This little car was now a ball of metal.
When the ambulance came they said it was a miracle I wasn't more
seriously injured.

I know my life was saved because I was wearing my seat belt.

In the months and year that passed I was vividly aware of my lack of car.
Walking and taking the bus in the heat and snow was hard and I often
wondered, "why?"

Fast forward to this week.
I am sitting in a room and I volunteer for some missionaries to teach me.
The subject was fasting.
In this meeting I was honest with them and I told them what I knew
about fasting.
I let them know that I didn't understand what fasting was to me.
The reason I would fast was because I believed and hoped it was
something good to do, but that was as far as my
knowledge/understanding went.

Then the missionary took what I said and bore his own testimony of fasting.
He compared fasting to "fastening" a seat belt to keep us secure and safe.
Tears started to form in my eyes, and I remembered that ugly mangled
mess of a car.

It was only because I had my seat belt on that I survived.

Prayer, with the added protection of fasting, is the seat belt needed
for our soul.
It is there to protect us from the spiritual car accidents we may face.
Fasting is humbly turning to God and asking Him for help,
understanding, direction, protection, etc.
Fasting can be giving up two meals to 24 hours of your food and water
and turning to God in prayer.
When we fast we always start and end with a prayer so we have a purpose.
We ask for what we need and we don't let the world know.
Fasting is just between you and God.
And I now know it saves lives if not physically then definitely spiritually.

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
free, and that ye break every yoke?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health
shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before
thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and
he shall say, Here I am."
Isaiah 58:6,8-9