Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” John 4:31-34
“Fasting is not so much about abstaining from eating food as it is about finding an entirely new source of food…This is an intense idea. Food is a good thing, until it has become the main thing, and for so many of us (present company included) food has become the main thing. Can we just call it? My food is not to do the will of God but rather, pizza and steak and bar-b-que and lots of chips and salsa and Panda Express and I’ll stop there. My life, all too often, revolves around food. I think about it way too much. No sooner have I finished lunch than I start thinking about dinner.
Don’t you think Jesus would like to take us to this place with him — where we are fed at the deepest level from doing the will of God? Wouldn’t that be awesome?! Again, food is a good thing, until it has become the main thing. I think if my food were doing the will of God that normal food might taste even better.
So how might we get to such a place in our experience of Eternal Life? It brings me back to the practice of fasting. I’ve been learning a lot about fasting over the past couple of years. I’ve mostly thought about fasting in the same way I think about dieting — as a temporary alteration of my normal pattern in order to gain some kind of positive benefit. In my experience, dieting does not produce lasting change. I am coming to think that dieting is all wrong, because it just means swapping out one kind of food for another (until you can’t stand it anymore or the Swiss Cake Rolls come calling). What needs to change is not so much the food I eat but my overall relationship with food. With this kind of change, my diet will cease to be an aberration from the norm and begin to be a new normal.
The same might be said of fasting. What needs to change is not my technical practice of fasting but my overall relationship with God. With this kind of change, my fasting will cease to be an aberration from the norm and begin to be a new normal.
Now, the fascinating thing about fasting in the way of Jesus is it will not only change your relationship with God, it will change your relationship with food. I’ll push it a step further and speculate that my disordered relationship with food may actually be a symptom that I have a disordered relationship with God.”
J.D. Walt in “The Critical Difference Between Fasting and Dieting” blogpost on 2 March 2017.
This is an excellent summary of “the fascinating thing about fasting in the way of Jesus” for those who don’t understand fasting during Lent or the rest of the Christian life. I hope this is helpful.
This Lent, I am learning to let go of something I thought I needed to grab hold of God who is all I need. In so doing, I am already realizing He satisfies in a way nothing else does. Try fasting. See for yourself.
Fasting also shapes our generosity because the food God gives us is to do His will and finish His work. Our lives are fueled by more than food, but by the springs of living water that flow from Him.