Authentic Fasting From James MacDonaldPrøve

Already Full Let’s review the definition of fasting: Abstaining from food (and sometimes other things) for measured periods of time, in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God. Not only do we lack a general hunger for God, we have only so much hunger to begin with. Now to me, this is a very helpful concept. I want you to think of a pie. I want you to let that pie represent your total capacity for any kind of intake whether it is emotional, relational, or physical. Every day we get up and we have a capacity to satisfy ourselves. That capacity is finite. It’s limited. We have a finite capacity to feed. And so we get up and get dressed, and we use a certain amount of our capacity on that. Then we have breakfast and use up more. Some people listen to the radio, and that takes up more of our capacity. And we have our phones which can take up a lot of capacity! And smart phones? They’ve got like eight different ways to take over your life! We are feeding on all these things. They may be good things, sometimes necessary things, but still using up our capacity that might otherwise focus on God. So we go to work, and if you work under a lot of pressure or with a difficult person, that can empty you of your capacity for God immensely. And then there is the drive home, dinner, and family relationships. Are you starting to get the picture? Finally, we go to bed exhausted and full of the concerns of the day. Just before we get into bed, we kneel down and pray, “God, why don’t I have any hunger for You?” How can you change this pattern? Fast. Prayer – Father, I am a finite being. I can only do so much, and take in so much. Forgive my tendency to use my time and capacity on things that draw me away from nurturing my hunger for You. Give me such hunger for You I cannot help but put away that which does not satisfy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.