Fasting is essential

I am working on a short collection of essays based off the writings of Paul to the Thessalonians. I will be publishing them in paperback format for ease of reading. Below is a sneak peek into what those essays will look like, as I discuss the topic of fasting.

Practicing fasting to understand holiness

Controlling your own body is one of the simplest of calls and difficult of tasks. The most obvious act of controlling your natural bodily impulses comes in the form of fasting, the practice of withholding food.

Today, much of the conversation surrounding fasting is centered around the physical experience of fasting. There seems to be data surrounding the participation in fasting that seems to point out real health benefits to the activity. This removes the practice’s connection to the ancient world. Fasting has been used as a spiritual tool in many cultures throughout many different eras of human existence with varying results. In the Jewish and Christian story arch, fasting was used as a means of drawing close to God.

In the act of fasting, there was and is a sense that the person or group of people participating were distancing themselves from anything impure. Food also has a way of making us dependent. We keep coming back to the table, opening the fridge and pantry doors, our stomach aches to be filled and our mouth salivates for flavor. Once food is removed, our strength that comes from regular nourishment is removed and we must seek strength somewhere else.

In order to experience the spiritual benefit of fasting, the removal of human dependence on food replacing it instead with a dependence on God, removing the distractions between us and God, we must display a large amount of discipline.

Being unable to discipline the stomach is a warning sign of a much deeper issue. If I struggle to control what goes in my mouth, how much more difficult to control what goes into my soul?

If every time my stomach growls for food I feed it, though I had committed to fasting, will not when my heart growls in lust I also fill my desire?

If every time my stomach aches I fill it, though I had committed not to, will not when my heart aches for money I begin to chase riches over the glory of God?

If my mouth chases sweets and I bite down, though I had told myself I would run from it, will I not also pursue my neighbor’s possessions when my desires grow into covertness? When I forget to be grateful and chase things I do not need?

If I cannot control what enters my own body, will I be able to control what enters and is acted out from my own soul?

I remember participating in a week-long fast in my undergraduate. It is the longest fast that I have done to date. I consumed no calories, no flavors, but water alone. On the first day, I began to be very uncomfortable. The second day, my stomach screamed for food. The third day, I was sure a full week could not be done.

But on the fourth day, I was given what felt like a supernatural relief. I was reminded that man does not live on bread alone. The Word was fresh to me. Conversations with people around me became my calories. The next couple of days breezed by, and I was not hungry for food but for the movement of God around me.

Denying the most basic of needs, food, led me to crave righteousness, the presence of God.

Discipline will help you work out your sanctification. It is a gift from God that opens the self to being built into a new being by the person of God.

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