Question and Answer of the Week: Fasting

Fasting seems to be an oft-neglected spiritual discipline for Christians these days. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on fasting?

A few years ago I was involved in a study group with some younger men, and we went through Dallas Willard's book, The Spirit of the Disciplines. One of the issues we discussed was fasting. Below is what I wrote to them when we decided as a group to fast:

Fast for a full day. We came to this because fasting is one of the least practiced and/or understood of the disciplines among us.

Our schedules and ...

Hunger, Thirst and Craving God (Longing Part 2)

Blog before last I started a series on longing. I’ll pick up here where that left off.

Scripture often describes our longing for God as a deep hunger or thirst. Hunger and thirst are basic drives in our bodies, and there is also a hunger and thirst of the soul. This fallen world, with its fallen people, can never satisfy our fallen selves. But we keep going back to it, as if it can. We set our sights on the objects of a thousand different desires, none of which give us the lasting pleasure we long for.

Passages like ...