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| After several days of endless walking he collapsed, famished and weary and began to sleep. While he was sleeping, he began to dream that a butterfly was trying to fly into his mouth. As he awoke he still felt the fluttering in his throat, so he opened his mouth and proceeded to remove an 18-inch tapeworm that was dissatisfied with his lack of nourishment and began searching for food. While this illustration may be a little disgusting, I believe it is an accurate portrayal of what happens when we deny ourselves from those things that have become excessive attachments. For example, when we abstain from food, it doesn’t take very long before our body begins to groan for the satisfaction that it’s accustomed to. The hunger pangs however, are not the only things that begin to surface during a time of fasting. Many times our attitudes and hidden carnal needs of pride, anger, and greed, become exposed and present us with the opportunity to allow God to deal with them. I believe that this is the kind of fast that the Lord has chosen. It is not the act of abstinence that the Lord is pleased with, but the desire to put him in his proper place: on the throne of your heart. True fasting cannot be simply an act of the will, or your will is what you’ll worship. Fasting must be the result of a deep desire to be transformed into the likeness of God. Fasting is an integral part of worship and has great value for the believer, but we must be attentive to the evil inside of us that surfaces and allow God to change us. True fasting brings us to the place where we begin “to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) |
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