Fasting & Longing

Fasting is a lesson in “intensifying longing or desire”. Living in a culture of instant gratification means we know next to nothing about longing for anything at all, and therefore have a paucity of experience when it comes to longing for God. When a feast comes our way we therefore accept it as our normal expectation rather than with special delight. And our expectation for anything more is dulled. We cease to long because we feel full all the time, even if the reality is that we are full with things that are not delightful but mediocre or even toxic.

I think one of the devil’s most cunning strategies in the West is to give people everything they think they need, thereby making us think that there is nothing better to have and no reason to desire God. Which is the heart of the way Jesus was tempted: have all the kingdoms of the earth, and let them substitute for Yahweh. Fasting takes away the kingdom of the earth and retrains our spiritual desires towards God rather than his providential gifts.

--Marcus Honeysett

RP adds: if you aren't "up" for fasting... i bet you can get a small % of the power of fasting by intensely simplifying your diet for a few days each month... anything to keep "feasting" from being normal

Fasting

if you picked up a calendar y'day at our weekly gathering... and looked at it... you'll notice 3 days in august dedicated to prayer & fasting...... don't zone out on that .... i would venture to say that there is some way for every person to fast in a manner that awakens new areas for you.... to get you thinking of at least one non-food fast possibility....justintaylor writes:

One of the best parts of my vacation was being without a computer. Good for the soul!

I thought back to something that Doug Groothuis (philosophy professor at Denver Seminary) requires of his students:

I routinely require my students to engage in some kind of "media fast," in which they abstain from an electronic medium for at least one week. During this time they are required to reflection several portions of Scripture--the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the fruit of the Spirit, etc.--in light of their experiences. In the six or so years I have been assigning this fast, the results have been nothing less than profound for the vast majority of the students. Having withdrawn from the world of TV, radio, computers, they find more silence, time for reflection and prayer, and more opportunities to engage family and friends thoughtfully. They become more peaceful and contemplative-and begin to notice how media-saturated most of our culture has become. So, we need some asceticism. Any area of culture that decreases godliness and enhances worldliness must come under the loving discipline of Jesus Christ--for his glory, for our good, and for the good of those we serve. Christians need to withdraw from aspects of our technological culture (which Postman calls a "Technopoly"-a culture dominated by technology) in order to gain perspective on ourselves, God, and our culture.