Fasting
Why do we fast?
Fasting is a willing abstinence from food for a period of time. It is one of the most abused and least used of all the practices of Jesus. Yet for millennia, it was a core practice of apprenticeship. We live in a culture not only of food, but of excess, luxury, and addiction. For so many of us, the desires of our body have come to hold power over us. In the battle with our “flesh,” we have become its slave, not its master.
Our Relationship to Food, Body, and Image
How do you fast if you’ve had an unhealthy relationship with food? Listen to a conversation on eating disorders, body image, and Jesus’ call to health and wholeness. We interview a woman who has overcome an eating disorder in her own life and hear how she interacts with fasting now.
Practice
Follow along with each part of this practice. We recommend you work through it with your community, a small group triad, a weekly meal with friends or neighbors, your roommates, whatever works. Get a group of people, set a time each week to share a meal, then talk and pray for about an hour. Transformation happens in community.
Recommended Reading
Follow along with the recommended reading. We want to continually expand our minds and understanding of the way of Jesus. God wants us to love him not only with our hearts, souls, and strength, but with our minds as well.
