The Hungry Handmaid of Fasting (Fasting Edition #158)

Our fasting quote of encouragement today is from John Wesley. He said: "Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down."

Our fasting devotional today is titled "THE HUNGRY HANDMAID OF FASTING" from John Piper, author of the bestselling book "A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer".

Fasting -- what a servant she is! Humbly and quietly, with scarcely a movement, she brings up out of the dark places of my soul the dissatisfactions in relationships, the frustrations of the ministry, the fears of failure, and the emptiness of wasted time. And just when my heart begins to retreat to the delicious hope of eating supper with friends at Pizza Hut, she quietly reminds me: not tonight. It can be a devastating experience at first. Will I find spiritual communion with God sweet enough, and hope in his promises deep enough, not just to cope, but to flourish and rejoice in him? Or will I rationalize away my need to fast and retreat to the medication of food? The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:12, "I will not be mastered by anything." Fasting reveals the measure of food's mastery over us --- or television or computers or whatever we submit to again and again to conceal the weakness of our hunger for God.