Choosing to fast, is a purposeful choice you make to embrace suffering and suffering always has a way of stripping you bare and exposing the "true you" that lies within. When I fast, I get cranky and angry, I'm not pleasant to be around and I lose my joy pretty quickly.
Why do I get this way? Isn't fasting, after all, a discipline that is supposed to make me more joyful and more like Jesus? If I've lost my joy, what's the purpose?
Fasting is not what steals my joy. Rather, it's the idolatry that lives deep in my heart. It's this monster, when it is being starved, that steals my joy, snatches up my happiness, and leaves me cranky, angry and unpleasant.
This is why fasting is so important to the believer. Jesus uses our suffering of going without, to expose the very things that he demands lordship over. When that ugliness surfaces, take it to Jesus through confession and repentance, thanking him for showing you the areas that need to be submitted to him.
Whether it's through fasting or some other form of suffering that God allows in your life, remember it's there to build you up in him, so embrace it with the grace that Jesus provides.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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