Readibility: 1
Length: 181 pgs
Aurthor: John Piper
Fasting… when was the last time you did it? Ever? Why is fasting so rare today and what does this say about us? Is it because we are physically full that we are spiritually lethargic?
All this questioning might prompt another question, why should we fast? This book answers that question. If you are looking for a “how to” book on fasting, this isn’t it. This book is concerned with a greater question. Oh, that you would read A Hunger for God, and that there would be some unsettling in the pit of your stomach right now that would cause you to go without food in longing for something more satisfying. May these snippets whet your appetite for fasting.
Beware of books on fasting. …The discipline of self-denial is fraught with dangers – perhaps only surpassed by the dangers of indulgence.
‘Desires for other things’ – there’s the enemy. And the only weapon that will triumph is a deeper hunger for God. The weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we keep ourselves stuffed with ‘other things.’ Perhaps, then, the denial of our stomach’s appetite for food might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God.
What we hunger for most, we worship.
Half of Christian fasting is that our physical appetite is lost because our homesickness for God is so intense. The other half is that our homesickness for God is threatened because our physical appetites are so intense. In the first half, appetite is lost. In the second half, appetite is resisted. In the first, we yield to the higher hunger that is. In the second, we fight for the higher hunger that isn’t. Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of a superior satisfaction in God; it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away.
No Other Boast 