“You are what you eat.” Professional bodybuilders and Olympic swimmers eat a lot to power their high energy efforts. High school wrestlers strictly diet, shedding every ounce they can to reach their desired weight class. For any athlete or just individual trying to be healthy, what you put into your body matters.
The same is true in every sense for the Christian. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things…I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:25, 27 ESV). In fact, his preaching reasoned “about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). For good reason, too: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). When you are truly led by God’s Holy Spirit, a fruit of His presence in your life is self-control (cf. Gal. 5:18-23).
Such self-control should be regularly practiced in daily life. The ancient practice of fasting – purposefully going without food or drink for a defined period of time – is one way of doing this. Fasting was part of how Moses first taught Israel to observe the Day of Atonement, their solemn annual holiday for mourning sin (cf. Lev. 16:29). God’s people often fasted in times of collective or personal grief (cf. 1 Sam. 7:6; 2 Sam. 1:12, 12:16). Their leaders called on them to fast together when seeking God’s help and direction (cf. 2 Chr. 20:3-4; Ezra 8:21-23; Est. 4:16).
Jesus clearly envisioned this practice continuing among His followers (cf. Matt. 9:15). He even addressed it in His Sermon on the Mount: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others…But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:16-18). That sort of fasting promotes self-control. We control our hearts, examining our motivations as we seek God alone. We control our bodies, challenging ourselves to exude joy in the Lord even while physically uncomfortable. The whole experience helps us to recognize there is nothing we need more than God.
Is fasting something you practice? Though Jesus taught it alongside prayer and giving, our culture today is so obsessed with comfort and consumption that we often neglect it. Yet, Jesus says it is those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” who shall be satisfied (cf. Matt. 5:6). If “you are what you eat”, maybe Jesus-style fasting is just what we need to grow.