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“Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34–36 NLT)
Fasting is often the last discipline any of us want to partake in. Even when we practice it, we bend the rules a bit: consuming a large meal before commencing with the fast, chewing gum to trick our stomachs into contentment, and breaking the fast with a feast fit for a holiday. If we were truly intent on fasting in order to become more like Jesus, we would forgo these things, not because they break the rules of fasting but because they go against the spirit of fasting.
When we fast, we are cutting ourselves off from the easiest source of comfort; we are leaning into the uncomfortable situation of hunger so that we are reminded of how much we rely on God to sustain us and provide for us. When we fast and exercise self-denial, we are training ourselves, in concert with God’s sustaining grace, to focus on what is truly important.
Today, skip a meal you would normally eat and spend that time in prayer. Relish the sensation of hunger, not with a sense of perverse pleasure but with a recognition that this should be our true spiritual state: always hungry for more of God.
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Refrain from gluttony and thou shalt the more easily restrain all the inclinations of the flesh.
—Thomas à Kempis
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