Week 2 ~ The Purpose of a Soul Fast

WEEK TWO:
The Purpose Of A Soul Fast (Cindy Trimm)

The Self-Leadership Challenge
Welcome to Week Two of The 40 Day Soul Fast!
I hope you’ve been following along in the book and journal—and taking advantage of
the phone app! We are only just briefly touching on each week’s overarching theme
here—while the book takes you deeper into each day’s topic and the journal coaches
you through each of the forty characteristics of an authentic person.
Today we are going to talk about the purpose of soul fasting, the symptoms of an
unhealthy soul and how everything you experience begins on a soulular level.
When you feel weighed down—like you’re dragging around some kind of heavy
baggage not knowing what’s inside of it—you’re in need of a soul fast!
If you feel like you’re drowning in a quagmire of mental clutter, stress, hurt, loneliness,
or fear—fuzzy headed, indecisive, not able to think straight—or simply feel emotionally
bankrupt—or as if something has a spiritual lien on your soul—you need to stop and
clean your inner house! “Make a clean sweep of your lives,” as it says in Luke 3:16-17
(MSG).

Breaking free, getting clear, and finding that peace and confidence that makes life joyful
is the purpose of The 40 Day Soul Fast.
You are not alone when you feel those waves of despair crashing against your mind, or
that for every one step forward you end up taking two steps back—circling, yet stagnate,
bumping up against walls, blind. Every human being is susceptible to these nightmarish
symptoms simply by neglecting the life of their soul!
The first step in healing and liberating your soul is making the decision to do so.
“Destiny Moves At The Speed Of Decision.”
If you are here reading this, I congratulate you on taking the time to invest in the life of
your soul. You are already on your way to creating a stronger, fitter, better you. Believe
me when I say that when your soul is fit and strong, everything else about you will become better and stronger!
It amazes me how little we are willing to invest in the most important asset we
have—the one asset that governs everything else we experience in this life!
The minutia that ties up our souls is one of the most misunderstood things keeping us
from running with purpose and certainty. Experiences, events, habits, relationships,
desires, and motives, even spirits, continually ensnare our souls holding us back from
moving confidently forward in the direction of our dreams.
In his award-winning book, Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard wrote, “The hidden
dimension of each human life is not visible to others, nor is it fully graspable even by our
selves. We usually know very little about the things that move in our own soul, the
deepest level of our life, or what is driving it.”
We must ask ourselves, “Why do I do the things that I do?”—“Why do I keep attracting
the people I really do not want in my life, and repelling the people I do?”—“How can I
break free from negative cycles?”
We must be willing to be honest with ourselves and have the courage to be
circumspect—look around, take heed, and ask the difficult question of what within our
own life is causing our circumstances or determining the experiences we have with
other people.
“Negative patterns prevent us from fulfilling our
dreams and cause us to abort our purpose until we
eventually die with the seeds of massive potential
still locked up within us.”
Now more than ever, at this time in history, we must “lay aside every weight, and the sin
which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us” (Hebrews 12:1).
The weights that tie us down not only keep us vulnerable to sin, but also cause us to
inappropriately respond to life’s challenges and adopt entire sets of behaviors that keep
us stagnated and going around in circles. These negative patterns prevent us from
fulfilling our dreams and cause us to abort our purpose until we eventually die with the
seeds of massive potential still locked up within us.
Not only that, but when we are unable to break free from the junk cluttering our soul life,
we keep those around us bound up as well. We become part of the problem rather than
the solution. We are among the blind leading the blind. Jesus asked His disciples, “Can
the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39.) We become
the hurting that hurt, and the disappointed that disappoint.
“Many never realize there is a direct correlation
between where they are now
and every decision they have made.”
In my years of interacting and observing people, it has become glaringly apparent that
most folks are generally oblivious to how their decisions and thought patterns affect
those with whom they interact on a daily basis, and vice versa—let alone how everyday
words and decisions affect their own destiny. This is heart wrenching to me.
I have spent my career as a civil servant, educator, and minister observing the
debilitating burdens people carry who have been hurt or negatively affected by the
words or actions of others, as well as their own.
The fact is, all of those negative actions and reactions are simply the outcry of hurting
souls—a cry for healing and restoration—a desperate plea to be freed from the weights
and bondages that have tied so many of us to continual defeat, failure, and despair. It is
a self-perpetuating process the enemy has spun into perfection incarcerating the souls
of humanity in prisons of offense, resentment, and unforgiveness.
I have come to the conclusion that most of the junk cluttering our souls has to do with
the experiences we have had, or are having, with other people. The result of the
choices we make within the context of our relationships.
“Your life is simply a representation
of the sum total of your choices—
choices that either enslave or save your soul.”
It all began when humankind first chose to walk away from a healthy relationship with
God and to relate instead to the god of this world paying fatal attention to his deceptive
propositions. Since then, we have observed generation after generation of deteriorating
healthy relational ties, and as a result, the strengthening influence of unhealthy soul ties.
We have become an increasingly self-centered people, pursuing the lust of the eyes,
the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life—experiencing deceptive measures of success without ever fully maximizing our potential or fulfilling our purpose—and hardly ever do
we do either with any real power or inner peace.
Many exit this earth prematurely while others are plagued with sickness and disease, or
feel exiled to an inferior standard of living with its perpetual cycles of defeat and failure,
or fall victim to self-sabotaging and self-destructive behaviors. They draw destructive
people and circumstances to themselves simply by what they choose to believe.
Many never realize there is a direct correlation between where they are now and every
decision they have made in the past.
“You are always only one decision away
from living the life of your dreams!”
Destiny moves at the speed of decision. In other words, the life you are living—the state
of your relationships, the joy and peace you are experiencing, or the sorrow and pain all
find their root in the decisions you’ve made up until now. Your life is simply a
representation of the sum total of your choices—choices that either enslave or save
your soul.
Think about that for a moment. Ultimately, you are only one decision away from
changing everything. One decision can change the trajectory of your life. You are
always only one decision away from living the life of your dreams!
From here on out, make certain everything you say or do is aligned with the Word of
God. James wrote, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”
(James 1:22). Why? Because it is by choosing to do and not just hear the Word that you
are “able to save your souls” (James 1:22).
Yes, it is up to you to take charge of your soul—and ultimately your destiny!
“The goal of the Soul Fast is to guide you through the
process of discovering who you really are,
assist you in examining all of your objectives and
relationships, and establish you on the path to
success and prosperity.”
For the next forty days, I will show you how to detox your soul and renew your mind so
you can break free from the decisions that are keeping you from going around in circles.
I will take you on a journey through the realm of your soul and the territory of your
thoughts, and walk you through the mechanics of harnessing the power of your words
and the extraordinary force of your actions.
You may have been handed a bad deal from the day you were born, but I’m here to tell
you that doesn’t have be your final epitaph! The goal of this 40 Day Soul Fast is to guide
you through the process of discovering who you really are, assist you in examining all of
your objectives and relationships, and establish you on the path to success and
prosperity.
My highest calling and greatest reward in life is launching you into a new level of
victorious and joyous living by establishing you in the knowledge of the truth of God’s
Kingdom—knowledge that will set you free regardless of the unfortunate events,
decisions, or relationships you’ve been bound by in the past.
Jesus promised his disciples, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free”
(John8:32). The truth will set the real you—the divinely created you that has been held
captive—free from the limitations of your unsaved, enslaved soul!
Let’s get started unlocking the real you!
“What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?
What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Mark 8:34 MSG).

~Taken from Cindy Trimm http://www.soulfast.com/?page=40day&lesson=lesson2