08/25/2026
Matthew 5:6 — “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
I was talking to someone Sunday morning between services about how they have lost weight and are feeling better and our conversation leaned in to how the food we eat is literally killing our bodies. And then the pharmaceutical companies profit off of it because of all the medication we take to fight how our bodies react to the food we eat.
The reality is that we have become addicted to food, and we don’t even realize it. But when we start fasting, the body starts fighting. Signals start firing in our brain to tell us that we “need” to eat this or that…and it’s really a lie of the mind. We don’t need processed sugar. We don’t need fried food. We don’t need the things that our body tells us we need. And when we fast, the struggle is REAL!
Fasting denies the flesh so that our spirit can become more in tune with God. It’s a spiritual discipline unlike any other. Fasting creates “hunger”…that’s the whole point. It exposes our appetites. But there’s a different kind of hunger that changes us for the better. Hunger is the spiritual recognition that what we have experienced of God is wonderful, but there’s still more of Him to know.
When I’ve eating the wrong things, I’m not hungry for the right kind of food. In the same way, when we’ve consumed the wrong things spiritually, we’re not hungry for more of God. Hunger for God often grows when we realize that nothing else can satisfy the deepest places of our souls. Success won’t do it. ‘Stuff’ won’t do it. The TV won’t do it. Even relationships can’t occupy the place that belongs to God. There is a void in our lives that God wants to fill, but as long as we keep filling it with the things of this world we will keep living unhealthy spiritual lives.
When my 6-week old granddaughter is hungry, she cries. And when she cries, everybody jumps to feed her! Fasting creates hunger - not just physically, but spiritually. And if you’re really hungry for more of God, cry out to Him and He’ll jump to satisfy you with more of His presence, power and love. Fasting reminds us that our soul’s greatest appetite should not be more FROM Him, but more OF Him.
“Lord, fill me with more of You. Let my physical hunger translate into a spiritual hunger that only You can satisfy. ”