Most people break fast every morning – when they see light.
Yet, during the religious season of Lent so many people remain in the dark about fasting and food in general as it relates to God.
It is evident that many of us should watch what we eat, but does the Bible say God is watching what we eat?
Does God require fasting?
Does fasting grow you spiritually?
Does fasting give you a reward?
Does what we eat (or not eat) bring us closer to God?
These questions and more were explored in a recent Tuesday lesson titled, Fasting, Food, and Lent.
The hard to swallow truth is that fasting for forgiveness, greater spirituality, humility, or obedience to God is a failure to understand the dispensation of God’s grace.
It is not food restriction that crucifies our flesh, it is Christ by the cross (Gal 2:20).
Forgiveness does not come from confession and fasting, but from the shed blood of Christ applied to you through faith (Col 1:14; Col 2:13).
Since we are already dead with Christ, fasts would not honor Christ, but our flesh (Col 2:16-23).
When we are using fasting calendars and rules to constrain our flesh, we are not using the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14).
Furthermore, we are not waiting through days of repentance and afflicting our soul (Lent) for a future day of atonement (or Easter). We are living in the day of salvation today, each day, to the glory of God’s grace (2 Cor 6:1-3).
Paul explicitly says, “meat commendeth us not to God” (1 Cor 8:8), and we “depart from the faith” if we command to abstain from meats because of God (1 Tim 4:1-5).
If you are fasting for religious reasons. It’s time to wake up! Break the fast with a healthy diet of good doctrine from the word of God rightly divided (1 Tim 4:6).
For your spiritual understanding and health,
Justin “eggs and bacon” Johnson