Some Christians approach fasting as a duty. Others don’t approach it all, perhaps for lack of understanding of what fasting means or accomplishes. One way to better comprehend fasting is to imagine a stricken lover pining for his cherished one. The intensity of his yearning drives from his mind the thought of eating. That image – of an appetite for a loved one replacing an appetite for food -represents part of the essence of fasting.
Love-sickness for God is part of the mindset involved in fasting. We fast, not only because our appetite for God supplants our appetite for the material, but because our appetite for God is threatened by our appetite for the material.
All the gifts that God gives, including food, have the potential to displace our devotion to Him. That is the irony of fasting. It is not the denial of evil; we don’t fast from sin. We fast from the innocent blessings that God grants. We fast because these blessings have the potential to take our eyes off God.
One way food can undermine our relationship with God is by unseating Him as our focus of dependence. Food is an effective anesthetic for our emotional and spiritual ailments. Each of us looks forward to the next meal as a time of comfort and solace. Eating may also be an escape from anger, pain, or boredom we face. Fasting prevents us from drowning our problems in gravy. Denying our body, we come face to face with our need of God.
When fasting seems impossible, we need to ask: “To what or to whom am I enslaved?” When we are unable to put down the fork, we demonstrate enslavement to food and the comfort it brings, rather than enslavement to God.
God could have made us with no need for food, but He created us as hungry human beings for His glory. Hunger glorifies God when, in our eating, we are grateful to Him for the blessings He bestows. Hunger also glorifies Him when, instead of seeking food, we put our needs and wants aside to seek Him. In this way, fasting demonstrates to Him how much we want Him.
….Borrowed