prayer and fasting

prayer and fasting, a photo by james veltmeyer on Flickr.

I have been convicted lately of praying and fasting.

My understanding of prayer from the Bible is that prayer doesn’t change God, prayer changes me. (I do know that God answers prayer, I don’t doubt that and I do pray, each day)

I think because of this understanding I have never thought Praying and Fasting was a very good idea.
I use to joke that I was into Praying and Eating! That way I get the best of both worlds!

I have since been rebuked.

After talking to other Christians and reading a bit about it I decided to fast recently in one lunch time.

I found the chapter on Fasting from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, practices that transform us, by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun was excellent.

I really like this quote, “Fasting is an opportunity to lay down an appetite – an appetite for food, for media, for shopping. This act of self-denial may not seem huge – it’s just a meal or a trip to the mall – but it brings us face to face with the hunger at the core of our being. Fasting exposes how we try to keep empty hunger at bay and gain a sense of well-being by devouring creature comforts. Through self-denial we begin to recognize what controls us. Our small denials of the self show us just how little taste we actually have for sacrifice or time with God.”