Not eating certainly has a way of focusing my attention. Apparently, it also grabs God’s attention.

“Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life,” states Scot McKnight in his book, Fasting.

I connect with that statement. My gut ties up in knots and food is avoided when I worry. If someone close to me dies, I don’t eat for days. A difficult situation leads to a natural reaction of fasting. God has programmed fasting into our DNA.

Fasting is a whole-person cry made to the heart of God. It entwines our inner spiritual life with bodily denial of food and trains our mind to focus on the things that concern the Father. The result is a holistic approach to prayer—our life becomes the prayer.

In A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer, John Piper refers to those who have gone before us, “They were hungry enough for God’s leading that they wanted to say it with the hunger of their bodies and not just the hunger of their hearts.”

This is the season of Lent, and one spiritual discipline practiced during Lent is fasting. It’s a time when our spirits and our bodies hunger for God’s leading. How does fasting ignite your walk with the Holy?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis