Fasting From Sugar, Feasting On God's WordSample

Day One

Finding Freedom

Scripture: Galatians 5:1

“My name is Wendy and I’m a sugar addict.” Those nine words changed the trajectory of my life when I posted them online in 2014. Innocently, I invited people on my Facebook page to join me for a 40-Day Sugar Fast. I wasn’t simply having a problem with sugar, I told my friends, I was experiencing physical and emotional problems too. My sugar tooth was dictating my thoughts and my days. I was gaining weight, my muscles and joints were always hurting, my sleep was fitful, and my emotions were a wreck. Sadly, sugar wasn’t making me sweet. I didn’t need any more conviction, what I needed was transformation. I needed more than another diet; I needed something deep within me to change. 

There’s something about sugar that has a grip on us, and we know it. We run to sugar for our comfort and our reward. We turn to it in boredom. We depend on it when life is stressful. We crave it when we’re depressed. And even when life is at its best, we celebrate with cake. Our sugar habit has become a physical and emotional addiction. 

If you are feeling powerless over your addiction to sugar, if you have lost sight of God’s power in your life, know that you are not beyond redemption. Fad diets and workout routines can’t set you free, but God can. Sugar is everywhere but so is He. What would you be willing to give up in order to gain the powerful presence of God in your life? With His help you can be set free—free from your shame, free from your cravings, free from your addiction. 

Dear Lord, nothing has worked to set me free from the compulsive way I turn to sugar when I could be turning to You. I know I need more of You and less of the stuff that leaves me hungry. Take my life as I empty it out and fill me with Yourself. Your Word proclaims: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1, niv). I’m choosing to believe that’s true. Set me free! In the bondage-breaking, freedom-giving, sweet, sweet name of Jesus, Amen.