Matthew 6: 16-18
Jesus challenged us to carry a positive attitude, a bright, clean and happy face when we are fasting. Don’t carry the weight of the world on your face. Preferably wear a round smiling face when fasting. Jesus challenged us to look good, and I will add, smell nice when fasting. Wear a cologne or perfume. It should not show on your face that you skipped breakfast and will probably skip lunch too. Be excited in spite of this. Fasting is an investment, be happy you are making an investment.
There can be some unpleasant experiences with fasting. The Psalmist describes his experience in Psalm 109:24 “My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness”. The most common is called ‘habit hunger’. This is a false hunger and just a feeling; do not break your fast because of this. ‘Habit hunger’ comes to you at the normal times your body is used to eating. It does not mean you are really hungry. The human body can go for more that 30 days without any food at all and this is actually a conservative figure. The easiest way to deal with habit hunger is to tell yourself that you are not really hungry, bin the discomfort and it will go away. Also you can overcome habit hunger by just drinking a little water during your normal meal times. Don’t break your fast nor be fooled by habit hunger, you will regret it (God will not punish you, but you might be sad because you let yourself down).
Prayer/Affirmation: Lord, give us the discipline and the stamina to be able to set fasting commitments and to stick to them till the end in Jesus mighty name.
