Chapter 16
FASTING FOR VICTORY OVER GLUTTONY AND OVERINDULGENCE
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
—PHILIPPIANS 3:19, NKJV
YOU DON’T WANT your belly to be your god. The belly is the center of your appetite. You cannot allow your appetite to control your life. In Philippians 3, Paul wrote of those whose God was their belly. They were earthly minded. They were carnal. In other words, they were rebellious gluttons.
Carnality will hinder your walk with God. Fasting helps you overcome carnality. Fasting helps you walk in the spiritual. Fasting is spiritual. Fasting is the opposite of being earthly and carnal (being controlled by your appetite).
Romans 16:18 says, “For such people do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites, and through smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.” One of the benefits of fasting is that it teaches us moderation.
Moderate means being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme. Excess is detrimental. Food is stimulating. Our brains become quickly accustomed to stimuli, and the result is a lack of true satisfaction. Denying yourself food is denying one of the things that stimulate us the most in life.
While at first our senses are acutely tuned in to the input they are receiving, they fast become acclimated to the stimuli. The stimuli lose the ability to wow us and give us pleasure. We become numb to it. At this point most people reach for something new to experience those fresh feelings anew.
This is certainly the answer society gives us for our restlessness, our boredom, our anxiousness, and unhappiness. The answer is always MORE. More stimulation. More sex, more movies, more music, more drinking, more money, more freedom, more food. More of anything is sold as the cure for everything. Yet paradoxically, the more stimulation we receive, the less joy and enjoyment we get out of it. The key to experiencing greater fulfillment and pleasure is actually moderation.1
Moderation is important to satisfaction in life. We have lost the importance of moderation. Our society is filled with excess. Fasting is self-denial. Fasting is a powerful weapon against excess. Fasting helps us become temperate. Temperance is moderation and self-restraint, as in behavior or expression. Excess is lust and self-indulgence.
For in earlier times of our lives it may have sufficed us to do what the Gentiles like to do, when we walked in immorality: lusts, drunkenness, carousing, debauchery, and abominable idolatries.
—1 PETER 4:3
Excess is the opposite of the Spirit-filled life.
Do not be drunk with wine, for that is reckless living. But be filled with the Spirit.
—EPHESIANS 5:18
Gluttony and drunkenness are manifestations of excess and are connected to rebellion and stubbornness. Deuteronomy 21:20 says, “They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not listen to us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’”
They are surprised that you do not join them in the same excess of wild living, and so they speak evil of you.
—1 PETER 4:4
DECLARATIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL AND SATISFACTION IN WHAT GOD PROVIDES
I am a lover of what is good. I am self-controlled. I am just. I am holy. I am temperate (Titus 1:8).
I am sober, serious, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience (Titus 2:2).
I inhabit the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control; against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22–23)
I strive for the prize, therefore I exercise self-control in all things (1 Cor. 9:25).
God has not given me the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and self-control (2 Tim. 1:7).
I will be self-controlled in all things (2 Tim. 4:5).
I will feast at the appropriate time with self-control and not drunkenness (Eccles. 10:17).
I will be satisfied with the abundant bread of heaven (Ps. 105:40).
The Lord satisfies the longing of my soul and fills me with goodness (Ps. 107:9).
The Lord opens His hand and satisfies me (Ps. 145:16).
The Lord will abundantly bless my provision and satisfy me with bread (Ps. 132:15).
I will see the face of God in righteousness. I will be satisfied when I awake with His likeness (Ps. 17:15).
I will be meek so that I can eat and be satisfied (Ps. 22:26).
My soul will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth will praise the Lord with joyful lips (Ps. 63:5).
The Lord will satisfy me in the early morning with His mercy that I may rejoice and be glad all my days (Ps. 90:14).
The Lord satisfies my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Ps. 103:5).
I am righteous. I eat to the satisfying of my soul (Prov. 13:25).
I am like the good man. I will be satisfied with my ways (Prov. 14:14).
The Lord will feed me with the finest of wheat, and with honey out of the rock will He satisfy me (Ps. 81:16).
The fear of the Lord will tend to my life. Because I fear the Lord, I will live satisfied and will not be visited with evil (Prov. 19:23).
I will find satisfaction. I will be able to say, “It is enough” (Prov. 30:15).
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves abundance with increase. This also is vanity (Eccles. 5:10). I will find my substance in God alone.
The Lord will satiate my soul with abundance and I will be satisfied with His goodness (Jer. 31:14).