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Fasting isn't about food—it's about teaching your flesh that it's not in charge. Every small refusal trains you for every larger one.
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Your body will tell you what it needs.
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And almost always
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>> [music]
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>> it is lying.
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Thirst speaks.
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Hunger speaks.
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The desire for comfort and ease and
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immediate gratification speaks
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constantly. If you listen to it as the
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voice of truth,
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you will organize
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your entire life around the appetite
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that [music] happens to be loudest right
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now. This is called slavery.
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Fasting is not about food. It is about
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the relationship between your spirit and
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your flesh.
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It is about learning [music] viscerally
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that you are not your appetites,
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that you can want something and not have
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it,
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that you can experience discomfort and
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survive, that there is a part of you
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deeper than hunger,
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and that part can lead.
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When you fast, something uncomfortable
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happens.
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Your body demands, your mind
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rationalizes, you will negotiate with
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yourself
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about why today is not the right day,
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why the fast can wait, why this
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exception [music] makes sense.
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And
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when you sit with that discomfort
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instead of satisfying it, you learn
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something essential.
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You are stronger than your impulses.
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This is not asceticism for its own sake.
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The early Christians fasted [music] not
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to earn favor with God or to punish the
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flesh.
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They fasted to strengthen the [music]
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spirit,
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to prove to themselves that they could
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choose
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the deeper thing over the immediate
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thing.
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Jesus fasted
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before he faced temptation in the
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wilderness.
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He weakened [music] his body
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deliberately.
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And in that weakness,
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his spirit was clear.
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He could see the lie for what it was.
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He could refuse
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what was offered because he had already
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mastered the smaller refusals.
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Every time you skip a meal in prayer,
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you are rehearsing a deeper discipline.
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The discipline of choosing what matters
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over what feels good right now.
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This translates everywhere.
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Into your words, your [music] attention,
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your sexuality,
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your time,
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your money.
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A person
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who cannot fast
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cannot truly be disciplined
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because they have never learned that
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their desire is not their destiny.
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Your flesh will obey,
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but only
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if you teach it to.
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