Fasting in Order to Feast

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One of the three spiritual disciplines Christians practice during Lent is fasting. (The other two are prayer and almsgiving. The three practices have their origin in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6.) We must eat in order to live, and fortunately God has made eating pleasurable for us . . . except when the meal is overcooked or undercooked and when we have an aversion to certain foods! Refraining from eating is associated with spirituality from time immemorial. People of the Old Testament fasted, and so did Jesus and the early Christians. There are good reasons for fasting and not only during Lent. Today many people fast as a means to lose weight. True, dieting is good for their health, but this is arguably the least noble motive for fasting. The primary purpose of religious fasting is spiritual: to increase our hunger for God. Here are nine other reasons to fast with examples from Scripture. Click to continue

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