Have you ever lost your appetite?
Think of the time when it happened. You got in an argument with someone you love at the dinner
table and walk off and cant eat.
Or your mom goes into surgery and you lose your appetite over
worry. Maybe you hear how a
certain brand of coffee or chocolate exploits the poor so you refuse to eat
that brand again. Or someone says something hurtful to you and you get so angry
that cant eat? Imagine being
so upset about sin in your life that you lose your appetite. Or you will yourself to not eat because
of a few extra pounds you have put on.
Fasting is when you will your appetite into submission to worship. Perhaps you look at the mess you have made of your life and you are so filled with shame that your appetite goes. This was David after his sin with Bathsheba. Fasting is being so hungry for God, so thirsty for his Presence, so desperate to come close to God that you can’t eat. Moses, expressed this, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Anna, the first century prophetess worshiped God with fasting. Fasting happens when ou paint a picture with your emtpy plate of a life void of God Fasting happens when we pour ourselves so deep into the mission of God that we use our hunger pains to express our desire for “his kingdom”. When we fast our growling stomach is a prayer. When we fast our longing for that favorite desert is a longing for the kingdom. This is exactly what Jesus did at the well “I have meat to eat that you know not of.” Fasting happens when you balance out the injustices in our world by resist the impulses of consumerism and giving the money to a charity. And in all of this you worship God. You honor him. You seek nothing in return. When we eat we seek something in return. When we fast we seek God. We give ourselves away. When we fast we feel the gnawing and sympathize with the famished. When we fast we crave our morning coffee, open refrigerators unconsciously, smell our favorite baked goods and then we refuse our wants we discipline our body and we deny ourselves take up the cross and follow Christ.
Below are some articles by Richard Foster (author of Celebration of Discipline) that may help you in your journey of fasting.
Download Richard Foster Fasting 20th Century Style
