Starving the flesh, feasting on the Spirit
Fasting is one of the most abused and least used of all the spiritual disciplines. Yet for millennia, it has been a core practice for apprenticeship to Jesus. All the great heroes of the Old Testament fasted. The first story we read about Jesus’ adult life is of him fasting for forty days and nights, like Moses and Elijah before him. The central characters of the New Testament continued this practice, as did the early church, which fasted twice a week – every Wednesday and Friday – for over a millennia. It’s not until quite recently that fasting fell out of favor.
And that comes as no surprise. We live in a culture not only of food but of excess and luxury and addiction to what psychologists call “the pleasure principle.” Yet for so many of us, the desires of our body have come to hold power over us. In the battle with our “flesh,” we have become its slave, not its master.
Fasting is an ancient Christian discipline to break the power of the flesh in our life – our desires, sins, and cravings – and to feed on the Holy Spirit.
Like all the spiritual disciplines, it’s really easy to lose sight of the “why” behind fasting. So this practice will focus less on tips and techniques, and more on the right motivation. There are three major motivations for fasting in biblical theology, and we will spend the next few weeks working through them. This week, we will focus on the flesh and the Spirit.