Why do we fast? Because we have a hunger for God, our deepest hunger. And we are meant to access that hunger. We are meant to feel it so that it can direct us toward God. Every spiritual master recognizes the danger that if we allow the superficial hunger of our lives to dominate, we never reach the deepest hunger.
Thomas Merton once observed that our desires for food and drink are something like little children in their persistence and tendency to dominate. Until they are disciplined, they will skew the functions of the soul according to their purposes.
Fasting is a way of disciplining the hunger for food and drink. It is a way of quieting those desires by not responding to them immediately, so that the deepest desires emerge. Unless you fast, you might never realize how hungry you are for God.
Dear Lord, set me free from the way I turn to other things when I could be turning to You. I need more of You and less of the stuff that leaves me hungry. Take all these heavy idols I’m laying down and teach me to lean into Your gentle refining. Take my life as I empty it out and fill me with Yourself. Your Word proclaims: “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free” Galatians 5:1 and I’m choosing to believe that’s true. Set me free! In the bondage-breaking, freedom-giving, name of Jesus, Amen.
Smitten With Goodness 