[ampaterry]

Yesterday, I spoke briefly about the diet trends which over-do weight loss. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I do NOT follow this trend. Some of these people are in such poor condition due to excess dieting and subsequent weight loss that the least minor illness becomes MAJOR, since they have zero reserves for energy. For my part, if I become too ill to eat for a week or two, no harm will be done at all!

But there are other reasons for setting into a radical diet, and one of them is what I want to discuss with you today, and that is fasting for spiritual reasons. I assure you, from both the Word of God and my own personal experience, a fast of a day or two has great benefit, spiritually. When your body energy is not being used to digest food, it is expended in other areas of the body, such as the BRAIN, which causes your mental capacity to be noticeably increased. Bible study and meditation combined with a fast have great benefit for a Christian, but should NEVER be done to excess. And, one should be prepared to deal with family and friends that may attempt to talk them out of any kind of fast.
I once read a story, for instance, about a man who announced to his family that he was going to enter a few days of fasting and pray. His 5-year-old daughter had recently learned that fasting meant not eating.
"No!" she shouted. "You can't fast! You'll die!"
Her dad carefully explained that many men and women fasted in Bible times.
His daughter only paused a moment, and then, with a flash of insight and a note of warning, she proved her point. "And they all died!" she said.

The Word of God tells us that Moses fasted while on Mt. Sinai;
Exodus 34:28(KJV);
"And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments."

The New Testament believers fasted;
Acts 14:23(KJV);
"And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed."

Follow these examples in the ACT of fasting, but do not follow Moses’ example for the duration of fasting; his was, after all, a unique experience.

May God bless you, guys -