Creatures of Habit: FastingSample

Fasting: The Hunger of the Habit 

Why is it so easy to forget things? Even important things can easily be forgotten. 

Have you ever forgotten where you left your phone, wallet, or keys? Or forgotten to pick up a kid from school? Or even a spouse’s birthday? (Whoops!) The most critical things in life can fall out of our immediate awareness when we become distracted. The busier and noisier we allow our lives to become, the easier it is to miss what matters most. 

Interestingly, we don’t usually forget to eat. Rarely does busyness crowd out the cravings that routinely arrive three times a day…or maybe more for some of us! Sometimes our craving to eat seems to be constant. 

But what about your hunger for God? Do you have spiritual cravings that drive you back to him? Do those cravings feel constant, or like a distant memory? He is the most important need we have. However, the pressures of life can quickly cause our need for God to drift to the background. When our spiritual hunger is ignored, it begins to dull, and then it can be forgotten. But…

Fasting from food increases your hunger for God. 

When we fast, it increases the awareness of our physical hunger. By increasing your hunger for food, you can more easily become aware of your true spiritual hunger. Your need to remain connected to the Author of Life. 

Life has many things that provide the illusion of fulfilling our desires. Fasting is an opportunity to consciously limit temporary solutions for our hunger, to recognize that true satisfaction is found in Christ alone. When we fast from food, we do so to feast on the true sustainer—Jesus Christ. 

Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). 

• What is the current state of your spiritual hunger? 
• Have you forgotten your hunger for God?

Read Luke 4:1-13 and John 6:35. In fasting, let every signal that is meant to remind you to eat, instead be a signal pointing you back to your hunger for God.