“…so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” –John 3:16b
We are a success-oriented
culture. We like to see numbers at the
bottom line grow. We like to see the
number on the scale shrink week by week.
We check our retirement savings to see if our shrewd investment
strategies have worked. We look at
reports cards to see how well our children have improved. We love to see our team win each week (Go
Duke!). Let’s face it we love, not just
like or hope for but LOVE, to
succeed.
But how do you know if you are
succeeding at fasting? One religious
group, who lived around Jesus’ time, the Pharisees had many ways to measure and
quantify the quality of a person’s fast.
If you asked a person, who knew the most about fasting, they would
answer the Pharisees. But Jesus didn’t
agree. In fact he challenged them often
on their views of fasting and religious observances. They had become so concerned with measurable
results they lost themselves along the way.
Their practicing of fasting brought death but Jesus came to give us
life.
What
are the signs of life? Paul, in the
letter to the Galatians, writes about the fruits of the Spirit. These signs of life are love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fasting helps us to see where we are
deficient in these areas but it also helps us to grow in these areas. Paul also tells us some great news about
fasting. The Holy Spirit is with
you! She tends to your budding spiritual
fruits and helps cultivate them while you fast.
Fruit
takes along time to grow and ripen. It
won’t happen over night. So fasting
won’t be a quick fix to an impatient life.
But fasting becomes the means by which the Holy Spirit can help us where
we need to grow and gives us life. Which
comes back to the question, how do you know you’re succeeding at fasting? I answer with a question; do people know you
for your fasts or for your fruits? Are
you known as a person who is generous, kind, and loving or cranky, miserly, and
uncaring? Which way of living gives life
to relationships?
May
this season of fasting bring forth new life in your spiritual journey and cause
others too share in that life.
~ Rev. Matt Seaton
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