A Week of Sundays: Week 17

Week 17: The Second Sunday of Lent

Fasting is one of those Christian traditions that are hard to swallow, pun intended. If food is good for our body, so why would God want us to go without it?

I can't answer that.  But I know that fasting was an early command to the believers, first mentioned in the Bible when Moses fasted in Exodus 34.  Jesus also fasted, as referenced in Matthew 4. And Jesus highlighted the importance of it as a spiritual discipline in Mark 9:29.

The church I work at encourages members to fast breakfast and lunch on Wednesdays during Lent.  This 24-hour fast is broken together at a worship service.  We sing, listen to God, and then break our fast with good wine (or Martinelli's) and fresh bread.  After the service we share a soup and salad dinner.

The first week, the fast was not difficult until late in the evening.  That week, I had class Wednesday night, so I didn't have dinner until about 9pm.  While the hunger pangs were undeniable, they mostly subsided when I drank water.

The second week, the fast was terrible.  Early in the day, I became hungry. By the afternoon, I felt a pain in my upper abdomen that would not go away. And by the time we came to communion, I leaned over to ask my husband if it would be acceptable for me to push people out of the way so I could eat first. "That's how bad I want Jesus," I joked to him.

As I awaited communion I realized, that IS how much I should want Jesus.

Like the burning in my belly, there should be an undeniable, inescapable desire to get to Jesus, to know Him, and to enjoy Him.

Maybe this is one of the reasons God wants us to fast. So we learn with our bodies what He wants our spirits to know.