"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me..." -Jesus of Nazareth
"Perhaps in our affluent society fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money."
- Richard Foster, Celebration Of Discipline, p66
"Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?" - Homer Simpson
The thought kept coming back to me last week, "Fasting and prayer." "Fasting and prayer."
I thought it might be my body revolting after some jalepenos & onion straws.
But it kept coming back to me. "I need to deny myself."
One does not reach 350 pounds by being disciplined. He does so by letting his stomach have whatever it wants.
If I follow Jesus and he says that my body is a "temple of the Holy Spirit," I should treat it as such. But I don't view my form of gluttony as being very sinful. Just like you don't view your form of (insert sin here) as being very sinful.
We scorn the smoker who is damaging her body and chained in addiction. We banish them to the far reaches of the property while I finish off my fifth donut and you replace the coffee iv that gets you through the day.
It's so easy to judge the speck in your eye while totally missing the log in my own.
So my goal over the next month is to deny myself some things that I want. (An exciting experiment, I know!) I do so in the hopes that I would grow more dependent on Jesus and knowing that it is far easier said than done.
I'm thinking that a little bit of fasting is all it takes to lose 8 or 10 pant sizes. Right?
Right?
Anyone?
Great post, Jay. I think fasting can produce in us the resistance to our fill-in-the-blank sin. Fasting may not be the best diet plan in and of itself. I'm praying for you and hoping that God doesn't ask me to fast this week.
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