Fasting for the Renewal of Spirit

I heard someone say they were fasting, and it got me thinking what a big impact this practice has on our faith. This is, after all, a very common thing to do especially at the start of the year; but do you truly understand what it means to fast? Or are you simply doing it because your church is doing it?

“I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered.” – King David

Fasting is considered to be an act of denying oneself. Your entire being is made up of three parts: the body, the soul, and the spirit.

Your body is your physical presence. It is the shell that contains your soul and your spirit.

Your soul is your mind, your will, your intellect. It is the part of you that allows you to think.

Your spirit is the part of you that directly connects to God. This is why a person who is described as having the spirit is also known as the person who has the most will to live.

All three parts play an important role in who you are. However, letting one part dominate over the other is the thing that causes us to lose direction sometimes.

Your body will crave things that are not good for you, and will sway your mind to think that you need something that you really don’t.

Your soul controls your emotions and the way you think, allowing you to feel powerless when you have every source of strength, depressed when you have so much to be thankful for, and weak even when there is nothing physically wrong with you.

These two are the most used parts of who you are, and they have the power to overshadow your spirit, the most important part of your being.

Your spirit has the power to tell your mind how to think and to push your body to follow your mindset.

This is what fasting does. It takes away the power from your body and your soul, allowing the spirit to take over and renew you in a way that allows God to control your entire being once again.

iPray: Lord, allow us to let go of the things that do not matter, and to push our whole being to be renewed through fasting. Direct our bodies, our souls, and our spirits to where it should really go.

The above bible quote is taken from Psalms 35:13 from the New Living Translation Bible.

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