Why Did God Create Bread and Hunger? (Fasting Edition #159)

Our fasting quote of encouragement today is from Marilyn Salmonson. She said: "Fasting empowers your spirit man, enhances your prayer life, and helps you focus on your Christian walk."

Our fasting devotional today is titled "WHY DID GOD CREATE BREAD AND HUNGER" from John Piper, author of the bestselling book "A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer".

One of the reasons food has this amazing power is that it is so basic to our existence. Why is this? I mean, why did God create bread and design human beings to need it for life? He could have created life that has no need of food. He is God. He could have done it any way he pleased. Why bread? And why hunger and thirst? My answer is very simple: He created bread so that we would have some idea of what the Son of God is like when he says in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life." And he created the rhythm of thirst and satisfaction so that we would have some idea of what faith in Christ is like when Jesus said in John 6:35, "He who believes in me shall never thirst." God did not have to create beings who need food and water and who have capacities for pleasant tastes.

But man is not the center of the universe, God is. And everything, as Paul says in Romans 11:36 is "from him and through him and to him". "To him" means everything exists to call attention to him and to bring admiration to him. In Colossians 1:16, Paul says more specifically that "all things were created by Christ and for Christ." Therefore bread was created for the glory of Christ. Hunger and thirst were created for the glory of Christ. And fasting was created for the glory of Christ...