Eating and Fasting and Discipline...Oh My!

The mind feasts on what it focuses on.  What consumes my thinking will be the making or the breaking of my identity.  If you want to know what  a person's focus and feast is, all you have to do is listen to the WORDS that come out of their mouth.  -- Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst

 

I have been crying out to the Lord and asking Him to transform and change the way I think about food and the role it plays in my life.  

Though there are very practical things I can do to change my outward circumstances, it won't last if I don't change my inward thinking...As a man thinks, so he acts! 

Today I just happened to be reading through Matthew 6 when Jesus is instructing the people not to fast for show.

And when you fast, do not look miserable as the actors and hypocrites do when they are fasting-they walk around town putting on airs about their suffering and weakness, complaining about how hungry they are. So everyone will know they are fasting, they don't wash or anoint themselves with oil, pink their cheeks, or wear comfortable shoes. Those who show off their piety, they have already received their reward. When you fast, wash your face and beautify yourself with oil, so no one who looks at you will know about your discipline. Only your Father, who is unseen, will see your fast. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.--Matthew 6:16-18 Voice

This verse led me to do a word study on fasting:

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes out of the mouth of God! -- Matthew 4:4

“Rather is this not the fast which I choose, To undo the bonds of wickedness, To tear to pieces the ropes of the yoke, To let the oppressed go free And break apart every enslaving yoke? -- Psalm 58:6

"JESUS FASTED for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, He was, as you can imagine, hungry. But HE WAS also CURIOUSLY STRONGER" -- Matthew 4:2-3

 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run their very best to win, but only one receives the prize? Run your race in such a way that you may seize the prize and make it yours! Now every athlete who goes into training and competes in the games is disciplined and exercises self-control in all things. They do it to win a crown that withers, but we do it to receive an imperishable crown that cannot wither.  Therefore I do not run without a definite goal; I do not flail around like one beating the air just shadow boxing.  But like a boxer I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached the gospel to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified as unfit for service. -- 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

 

WE DO IT TO RECEIVE AN IMPERISHABLE CROWN THAT CANNOT WITHER!