If you are interested in weight management you should consider the historic Christian discipline of fasting for reasons different than you probably think. Fasting should not be seen as a weight-loss method. Fasting is focusing our attention and affection on God. Fasting is delighting in God over food.
John Piper has written one of the best books on fasting I have ever seen. Piper strikes at the heart of fasting with this quote:
“Illegitimate desires crush spiritual life. By legitimate desires are more likely to be the primary means of distraction in our lives. “The greatest enemy against a hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. It is the piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife. (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.” (Hunger for God, page 14) (Luke 8:14; Mark 4:19)
“The pleasures of this life and the desires for other things are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts from God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading a decoration and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.” (p. 15)
Fasting is a New Testament principle. It was the regular practice of the early church. It has been the practice of many Godly men and women thought the history of the church.
Fasting is hungering for the kingdom. Fasting is focusing on God. Fasting is not the forfeit of evil, but the forfeit of good to focus on God instead of his gifts. It is a hunger for the fullness of God.
Driving though the beautiful mountains of Eastern Kentucky one day I heard on old mountain preacher on the radio say, “The reason we don’t hunger and thirst after righteousness is because we are all filled up with junk food.” Don’t ever let food or drink or anything spoil your appetite for God. Thick or thin we should delight in God.
