How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives

Well here we are at the end of the week.

It has been an important week for Leeanne and I as we have been wrestling with what God is asking of us at the moment.

For the first time for ages I have chosen to fast from breakfast and lunch each day and just eat the evening meal with the family. I decided not to fast coffee because last time I tried that I ended up with the only migraine I have ever had, despite that concession it has been an interesting wrestle.

Fasting means not letting your body determine your actions

In the book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster talks about fasting and how it can help us focus. He says

Fasting helps us keep the balance in lie. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Paul writes, ‘ “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything’ (1 Cor. 6:12). Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channels.

It has been an interesting week of seeking what God is saying. For the first time that I can remember I woke up at 5 a.m. (I am not a morning person at all) and had a strong sense of what God was asking of me. As I spoke with Leeanne things have got clearer and clearer. This fasting thing might actually work.

Mind you, I think it should come with a health warning, not because of your hunger, but because your internal world can go a bit crazy. Foster writes:

More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes ‘I humbled my soul with fasting’ (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear – if they are within us, they will surface during fasting.

I am pleased for the experience of this week and the way it really does seem that God has been answering our prayers.  I don’t think I will fast regularly for a whole week like this, but I would like to do it more often. There is something about fasting that somehow makes things clearer.