Fasting for spiritual and physical health

This past Sunday I encouraged our church to embark on a 21 day time of prayer and fasting. We are joining hundreds of other churches across our land for what is a national movement known as "Awakening." That is my prayer for my life, our church, our nation; that we would see a spiritual awakening. As I shared last Sunday, fasting gets the "gunk" out. As we live out our lives, the daily grind can wear us down and we lose our passion. God wants us to live our lives for Him with passion. Romans 12:11 states, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." I can't think of a better thing to do than to dedicate the first part of the year to God and drawing near to Him through prayer and fasting. We all need to start out 2011 fully alive and attuned to God's Spirit.

There are not only incredible spiritual benefits to fasting, but there are physical benefits as well. Obviously, losing weight is a natural benefit of fasting. Stoval Weems in his book "Awakening" states that when we fast "our bodies reset themselves." Also, Steve Meyerowitz in his book "Juice Fasting and Detoxification" states, "When you fast, you are on nature's operating table. The body changes hats. Instead of being in the business of receiving, processing, storing, analyzing, assimilating, discriminating, and discarding, it shifts to the job of house cleaning, removal, sanitizing, refurbishing and renewal. It is a big job and it is not without its inconveniences, especially when there is someone living in the house."

Just like our souls, the inside of our bodies needs a good spring cleaning from time to time. Fasting is a simple way of cleaning house. I encourage you if you didn't have a chance this week to pray and fast, to commit yourself to do this before we finish January 30. It will be a wonderful benefit for you spiritually and physically.

Pastor Tommy