Our Sunday blogs during Lent will focus on the subject of fasting.
If we consider fasting in the purest sense of the word, it is to abstain from eating for a period of time. We deliberately leave our plates empty. Our normal appetites are denied. But what for?
Sometimes we take the time that would have been used for preparing and eating meals, and we instead devote that time to the Lord in prayer or Bible reading. We remove one essential activity and replace it with another activity that is more essential: connecting with God in a meaningful way.
Jesus makes a profound statement which we see recorded in the gospel of St. John chapter 4: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." (John 4:34). In the face of His disciples urging Him to eat, Jesus points out a more urgent need. A Samaritan woman had just connected with God through the Christ, and Jesus knew more people would be coming to Him because of her testimony: it was not His time to eat and relax. Rather than filling Himself with temporal food, He filled the townspeople with eternal truths.
Hail Lent. It is time to empty ourselves. Emptied of food, the ultimate symbol of our physical comfort. Emptied of spiritual power, as we expend it through ministering life and healing to the lost. Emptied of self, as we seek to bring salvation to the masses.
Lord Jesus, we fast and reflect on how You emptied Yourself for us. Please help us to do the same for others.
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