A Personal Experience of Fasting

I'd like to encourage you about fasting.  If you've never fasted before and think "I could never do that" then I'd like you to think again about this discipline.

It has been a discipline I have avoided for years because it sounded rather extreme to me, also because I really love my food and find being hungry very difficult.  I often get very cranky if I'm hungry and I really believed fasting was simply not for me.

However I resolved to have a go again when these monthly fasting days were suggested by Martin and to my amazement I have not only been able to do it without getting cranky I also feel a huge benefit: spiritually, emotionally and even physically.

Spiritually I have seen some wonderful answers to prayer as I have made particular issues the focus of my prayers on particular days, but more that this I enjoy the way that a fasting day reminds me to lean on God's strength throughout the day and he really does provide that strength.

Emotionally and physically, fasting has helped me to cut my dependence on food to regulate my moods, it's helped me to stop using food for reasons other than nutrition i.e. comfort, reward.  Loosing weight is not the point (I haven't lost any) but it has been a good thing to lessen the control that food has over me.

I rarely feel overwhelmingly hungry or even cranky which is what I was afraid of.  I do feel hungry of course but I try and turn that moment into a prayer.  It especially helps me to remember that hunger is a daily reality for the majority of people in our world and it makes me more aware and grateful for the food I do have to eat.

I'd encourage you to have a go and I'd also encourage you to stick with it because you don't notice all these benefits at once.  It's now such a valuable discipline to me, I fast weekly where I can.  but you have to be sensible so I move the day about sometimes so that it doesn't fall on a day full of strenuous activity.  I follow Martin's advice to begin the fast after tea on day 1 and break it at tea time the next day.  This means you only miss two meals and the family mealtime routine is not affected.

I drink plenty through the day and carry a water bottle of squash around with me.  i try to make my hot drinks moments of prayer and quiet to savor God's presence.  And I don't get too harsh with myself over it, if by late afternoon I am struggling, I'll stop, thank God for the day and eat some fruit to tide me over till tea time.

Don't be intimidated by the idea of a weekly fast, if you can manage monthly and have never done that before you will be greatly blessed.  The idea of doing it weekly is just to show you that it's not that rigorous or impossible.