Fasting: Renewing Our Mind, Body, and SpiritSample

Fasting: Breaking the Chains of Dependency

Holding tightly to the belief that our bodies function independently from the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and images that roam the halls of our minds and the inner character formed in our hearts is simply naive and foolish. However, that is the message the world wants us to believe, a message that tries to convince us that how we care for our bodies has no bearing on our spiritual life.

The more we allow our minds and hearts to be formed by the world, the deeper the poison of sin takes root within our bodies. Sin, if allowed the time and space to become fully mature, leads to a life of dependency, where we feel weighed down by the chains of a life lived according to the patterns of this world.

Thankfully, many verses in Scripture provide us with God's truth that we can hold fast to in order to counteract the lies coming at us from our culture. Here are just a few:

In the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (See Romans 12:1 NRSV) In his first letter to the church at Corinth, we read, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." (See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NRSV)

Friend, please know that God cares deeply about our physical bodies. If you and I surrender our whole selves (mind, body, and spirit) to His Lordship daily, He will be faithful (in His way and timing) to renovate us more and more into the image of Christ. Fasting is one of the primary ways of Jesus that we can practice in order to posture our bodies in the presence of God.

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. once wrote, "One of the main purposes of fasting is to wean us from our dependence on God's gifts and enable us to become dependent on God alone. We have a powerful tendency to grasp from ourselves the gifts God gives for the meeting of life's needs. We constantly succumb to the temptation to become dependent on these things for our well-being and wholeness. Whenever our grasp of something God has given for our sustenance and well-being becomes a destructive bondage of dependence - an idol - a discipline of fasting is needed."

As you go, consider offering the following prayer to the Lord: "Jesus, I surrender my body to you. I acknowledge that I was bought with a price and that my body is not my own to do whatever I want with. I ask that You lead and guide me into a healthy rhythm of fasting so that You might renew my body for Your glory."

If you enjoyed this reading plan, check out our weekly devotional, focused on helping Christians become more like Jesus. Sign-up here.