Why was the fall caused by eating a piece of fruit? Have you ever wondered how absurd that seems? Why not something crazy like they killed someone or committed adultery? Why was it something as simple as eating?
Eating, we do it every day, and yet do we ever really think about it? How does it connect with our spirituality?
Why does the bible command us to fast?
I have fasted several times. For one summer I fasted every Wednesday for 24 hours. One time I actually successfully fasted for 3 days, so 72 hours. Now that was hard.
I think the purpose of fasting is to illustrate the verse, "When we are weak, he is strong."
There is a verse that says, "Their God is their stomach." Randomly Paul writes that in the middle of on of his letters. That always struck me as odd.
And in Corinthians, a very verse, "I whip my body and make it my slave." Ascetic monks long ago used to take this literally, poor things, and would whip themselves. That cannot be the actual meaning since "You are the temple of the holy spirit. (and) You were bought with a price." I highly, highly doubt God would ever want us to hurt ourselves, this goes for tattoos too lol, but to each his own.
So if God does not want us to suffer why does he ask us to fast? Perhaps it is because in dying we find life. Jesus said, "Whoever wants to save his life will loose it, but whoever looses his life for my sake will find it." It is in dying that we live, the paradox of the Christian faith. And fasting proves that we do not value our life more then we value our love for God.
We have to remind ourselves also, "it is not about me." Fasting is a very good way to do that. To not give in to our appetites, to not give in every time we crave something, like giving in to a fussy two year old. That is what our stomachs are sometimes, a fussy two year old. And we need to put it in it's place.
Thus fasting. I encourage you all to try fasting for 24 hours at some point this week. And ask God to teach you something in the fast. HE WILL! :) lol
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