Three Steps To Be A Loser: Boredom, Gluttony/Lust, Distraction
To make money, you need diligence; to save money, you need discipline; to invest money, you need knowledge; to multiply the investment, you need wisdom—in a word, to build wealth, you need character.
We are doing a 21-Day Fasting Challenge (water fast) from May 19-June 8, join us any time!
For details, check out this post:
My hunger subsided by the fifth day, but my cravings returned on the sixth.
Fasting has changed my life twice—this was the second time—and on both occasions, I was in two nations most famous for their cuisine in the East and the West, places where fasting seems impossible.
When my cravings whined, demonic thoughts began to flood my mind:
“You can break your fast now and continue.”
“You already broke your own record.”
“God is gonna bless you anyway.”
“You’re not productive—you are wasting time! Eat so you can work hard!”
“You’re gonna lose hair and become ugly if you really fast that long.”
“Fasting is for men, women’s bodies are not created to adapt to fasting.”
“It is pride that keeps you going—because you told everyone.”
Amid swarms of lies and manipulative talks of the devil, I held onto this one sure thing: God told me to fast for 21 days.
So I didn’t give in; I did resist the devil—well, at least for now.
In this article:
The devil is my boredom
How I became a soldier of the Kingdom
All our fears scream out of the flesh
I hate that there are things I can’t afford
The devil is my boredom
What happened after that was that I became bored and exhausted. I napped, then struggled to get up because lying flat was the only way I felt better. My legs were too feeble to stand up from the bed, let alone to walk, yet I continued to show up at the gym. It was harder for me to walk those 5 minutes to the gym than to do a deep squat—don’t ask me why, that’s just how my body responds.
I tried to read the book I had just bought two days ago from a bookstore—now that I don’t have to go to the grocery store and spend money on food anymore—yet I couldn’t focus beyond three pages.
I’m a writer. And I can’t read past 3 pages.
I reached my desk and opened my laptop, then began to scroll on YouTube, yet nothing interested me. But I couldn’t help opening my laptop and going onto YouTube. I wasn’t watching anything. I was just, busy, being distracted.
I prayed, but I didn’t even have the strength to keep opening my mouth for over twenty minutes—not to brag, but I could easily—easily—pray for an hour in tongues.
I tried to write Chapter 18 of my epic fantasy, yet I hated it. I didn’t want to send it out; I felt like this wasn’t where I wanted it to go. I craved refreshments on my desk for inspiration—some pastry, chocolate milk, sandwiches, cookies—okay, stop there.
I smelled food from miles away, and it was by no means torture. I felt at peace, relieved, as if I’d eaten it just by smelling it.
I opened the Bible and didn’t know which book to read. I’ve read all of them. Yes, I know you can never finish reading the Bible because it’s the living Word of God—but I didn’t know what I needed to hear from the Lord. I had no topic in mind to ask Him. I’d already prayed through everything in my conscious mind over the past week.
They say fasting doesn’t change God, but it surely changes you. It’s true. I’m forced to face my boredom, gluttony, and distractions—the very things that would lead me to a life of being a loser.
I’m not the kind of Christian who’s okay with losing in this world, who justifies laziness in Jesus’s name, who glorifies suffering—even though nobody’s persecuting them except their own ignorance and stupidity.
How I became a soldier of the Kingdom
The devil didn’t attack me until the 6th day—because I broke my past record. He didn’t even believe I could fast this long. So besides the attack in my dream (tempting and forcing me to eat), witchcraft activities were revealed against me and everything I prayed for. He attacked me during daytime too. All those whispers didn’t come until the 6th day.
That alone pisses me off.
There’s one thing God didn’t take away from me—anger.
“Be angry, and sin not.” Ephesians 4:26
I no longer wrestle against flesh and blood since 2024. All my anger rages against the kingdom of darkness, the principalities, and the powers in high places. God didn't take my anger out—He knew my anger will fulfill my purpose as a soldier of His kingdom.
When Satan and his principalities in China tried to drag me to the abyss in Feb, 2024, when they used people I love to betray me, to belittle me, to curse me, to speak the language of hell to me, I held my peace. I knew who was behind all of these.
Satan threw me into the dirt, pressed my face to the ground and mocked me, but I grabbed the dirt with my face covered with blood and sworn to God that I would remember this—
From this day on, I would not cease hunting the devil. From this day on, I devoted my life to slay him; from this day on, make me a soldier of Your kingdom, make me the enemy of the devil, make my name be known to all principalities and his demons, make my name haunt them tenfolds more than how they hunted me, make Your Name be known and glorified through me.
That was when I committed to a fasting lifestyle—not to fast one time in emergency, but to fast regularly, to kill my flesh regularly and offer it as a living sacrifice unto the Lord.
The louder the flesh whines, the angrier I get, and the harder I strangle it—you devil, scream, burn, and die.
There's nothing the devil can do beyond tempting and destroying our flesh—not if we crucify our flesh first.
In my frailty, in my boredom, craving, and restlessness, I thank God for the gift of faith, for the clarity of His command—fast for 21 days and watch Me change your entire life. These 21 days will set you up for the rest of your life.
Fasting is never a competition against our brothers and sisters—fasting is merely an act of obedience, sacrifice, and faith.
I'm a dead man. This body does not belong to me, but it is a holy temple of God. Should He want it to abstain from food, so shall it be. Should He want it to die, so shall it be.
When we talk about long fasts like this—21 days—there's always this whisper in the bottom of our hearts: Would I die?
Well, the answer is, “If I perish, I perish.”
Why did Esther have that peace when talking about death? Because she knew where she was going even if she died.
When I heard that whisper—and scientifically speaking, it was ridiculous—I laughed. If I died, then finally I could be with God forever. I would no longer need to fast to seek Him so hard.
Do you have the peace to face death—even if it came tomorrow?
If not, then what you're doing and rushing for in this life needs to be reconsidered.
All our fears scream out of the flesh
That's my blessing—to have thought it all through and be certain, unwavering, secure in my faith.
On the 6th day, as my spirit wrestled against my flesh, I realized one thing:
I'm distracted. I'm bored. I'm a busybody, wasting my life away.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalm 90:12
That was the Word God spoke to me that very morning. I didn’t know how to number my days. My focus did not match my visions.
I thought of when I was in high school and middle school—I did not have a smartphone nor a laptop. I studied textbooks, read many other books, and even to this day I draw out knowledge I stored back then. I never used electronics while eating. We always had good conversations at the dinner table. I was raised well and had no complaints against my parents, but I’m solely responsible for my life.
The habit of consuming entertainment and craving "stuff" began in my college days. I hated medical school. I didn't like my roommates. I had no privacy and no space to think about my future while living in an 8-person dorm. We ate in the dorm, each at our desks, watching stupid videos.
I pulled out since junior year, spending all day in the library—no longer going to classes—yet self-study got me better results.
It was then God put the idea of writing an English novel greater than The Lord of the Rings in my head, and the trajectory of my life changed forever. Each day after midnight, when all my roommates were asleep, I started writing the novel. In the morning, I went to the library until it closed at 10pm. Then again, midnight would come, and I'd start writing nonsense that wasn't even English.
I'm not afraid to tell anyone the size of my ambition and the vastness of my visions—because they don't scare God; they only scare people who would sabotage or distract me.