Devotional

How fasting can grow your hunger for God

May 18, 2017
MATTHEW 4:4 - …’Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’

Have you ever been separated from a special loved one for a long period of time—or what seemed like a long period of time? Do you recall how it “hurt so good” to get a letter or a call during that time of separation? For a few precious moments it seemed as if your special someone was near, and that you were together once more. Then the letter or the call concluded, and the long wait to reconnect with your loved one began again. Although we belong to Jesus Christ; though He is our beloved and we are His, we are “separated” from Him by sin, by neglect, and by the cares of this world. We are “homesick” for Him in a way that is difficult to describe.

John Piper calls fasting the “hunger of homesickness for God.” Fasting is a discipline that woos us back into the romance of faith with our soon-to-return Bridegroom Jesus Christ. When we fast, competing suitors for the jealous love of Christ are revealed and destroyed. By abstaining from food for a period of time, the desire for it re-ignites our deeper hunger for the Bread of Life whose name is Jesus.

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Categories: Devotionals> Tags: hunger, fasting, Matthew

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