Finding the Strength to Fast

When it comes to fasting I find myself intimidated. I don’t enjoy the thought of being hungry. I fear the potential of experiencing low energy or being easily irritated because I don’t have any food on my stomach. Perhaps this is the case for you as well. If so, then it may be tempting to think that the way to be successful in fasting is to simply assert greater strength and willpower. However, this is exactly the opposite of what the Lord wants us to learn in fasting.

In 1 Peter 4:11 Peter explains that any service we do toward the Lord must be approached “with all the strength and energy that God supplies.” Why is this? Because it is only then that everything we do “will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.” It is possible to fast in our own strength, to grit our teeth and assert our willpower. But when we do this we are bringing glory to ourselves. However, fasting that is of eternal value is fasting that is done in the “strength and energy that God supplies.” And when we learn that fasting that is pleasing to the Lord can only be done by the strength of the Lord, then it also reminds us that anything we do in life (whether work or school or parenting or marriage or friendship or finances) can only be done to the glory of the Lord when it is carried out by the strength that he provides.

May we, like Paul in Colossians 1:29, remember that in all things we are called to operate in “all [Christ’s] energy that he powerfully works within [us].”