Fast from sweets. That’s what I heard God telling me. I had already decided to forgo lunches for 40 days. I’m also committed to finish reading through the Bible chronologically– an initiative many of us started a year ago. (I’ve fallen 26 days behind, but I will finish!) I am going to follow the devotional guide, including some extended time in reflection and prayer – I figured since I wrote the content for each day, I should follow it rather than just encourage you to. I should practice what I preach! I am even committed to reading a book I was given by a friend, a book of poems and devotional thoughts for Lent. But sweets!
I’m a bit of a foodie. I like to watch several shows on the Food Network. I enjoy planning and shopping for meals. I like to cook – not bake, but cook. I’m fond of a nice meal. I like to try new things, to sample various cuisines. I enjoy eating good food. All kinds of food, including sweets!
While leading the staff at a previous church I served, I drew a single line on a whiteboard and said, “You reach this line when you have done all that you think you are capable of doing. This line is where you see your limits are.” Then I drew a second line about three inches past the first one and said, “This line is where God sees your limits.” I pointed to the space between the two lines and said, “It’s in this place, between where you think your limits are and the potential that God sees in you, that you grow spiritually because you have to trust God when you are in this place.”
Fasting is a grace-infused practice of abstaining from food in order to make room for growing spiritual attentiveness, awareness, and maturity. Fasting is narrowing the gap between the lines. And that’s what God was inviting me to when he asked me to deny myself sweets for 40 days. To trust him. To push beyond what I want to do, what I think I can do. To grow.
No pain, no gain. It’s a cheap, popular slogan that points to a precious biblical reality — albeit with oversimplification — that we regularly see at work in our world.
The pain of childbirth gives way to the joy of new life. The disappointments of defeat catalyze athletes to train with even more resolve. The humiliation of failure leads to fresh awareness of personal flaws, sober self-evaluation, and the emergence of better, more mature, more intentional patterns of life. The most cherished realities in our lives are forged in the fires of pain and suffering. We see the evidence in our world and know the story in our own lives.
And the scriptures affirm this profound truth for God’s people. Through suffering, God exposes our sin and calls us to soul-saving repentance (Rom. 8:18-23). Through affliction, he drives us from the dangers of trust in self to the safety of trust in him (2 Cor. 1:8-9). Through pain, he works in us hope and holiness and endurance (I Peter 1:6-8, James 1:2-4). And the list goes on... He makes our sufferings into his instruments to wean us from the excess and cheap thrills of this world, keep us from conceit, and woo us to the surpassing value and preciousness of Christ (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
Whether it’s the suffering we endure in this world, or the suffering we choose, neither is wasted. God redeems and uses the pain for his glory and our good.
Jesus says in Luke 9:23-25 that “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
The New Covenant flips everything we thought we knew about the world on its head. Death yields life. Suffering brings glory. Obedience leads us to freedom. Christ says that we must die to ourselves, to the world, in order to grow. We grow the most under pressure, when we are uncomfortable and experiencing some measure of pain.
Fasting, denying ourselves food, can fill us to full with the goodness of God! Less food, more time to lean into, learn from and to love and be loved. Less me, more Him! More of his presence, his provisions, his purposes for my life, our church, our community! Gain and glory!
It’s a very, very little thing. But denying myself sweets for 40 days will produce some physical and psychological suffering. It will be a battle. I’m on day 3 and that’s already true! But I am absolutely convinced the mild suffering I am and will endure, will be worth it.
NO CROSS, NO CROWN. NO PAIN, NO GAIN. NO GUTS, NO GLORY.
P.S. Just so you don’t think too much of me or that I am pressing on the door of legalism – I will break my fast from sweets on my 15th birthday next week. I just know someone’s going to see me about town devouring a piece of cake and I thought it best to confess in advance rather than cause a brother or sister to stumble!