Dieting vs. Fasting

God told me not to diet, then He told me to fast. This would seem a contradiction; both are a restriction of food. The difference lies in the purpose or motive that inspires them. A diet is designed to help you lose or gain weight. A change of diet may also be initiated to improve or correct health problems. Dieting is a natural physical application that alters our physical well-being, weight, or health. It changes the way we look or feel.

Fasting is not for weight gain or loss. Nor is it limited to natural healing. It is not designed to change the way we look and feel but to change the way we perceive and live. A diet may change the way you look, but a fast will change the way you live. A diet may change your appearance, but a fast will change the way you see; it will alter your inner perspective. The world has perverted and reduced the fast, diminishing it to a diet. As such, it is not a spiritual renewal, but a physical one. The deepest transformations are wrought from the inside out.

Your focus or motive on a fast will be your reward. If God isn't the center, it will be reduced to merely a time of denial.

For too long you've measured your self by your bathroom scale, allowing it to dictate your moods and actions. You haven't been Spirit led - you've been weight led.

To chasten is to "discipline, purify, refine, clarify, and improve." Discipline is training, and we need to be reprogrammed. Chastening is necessary to educate and cultivate a new you. Chastening by fasting begins a purification and refinement of your sould and motives. Once the cravings of your soul are mastered, the cravings of the flesh will follow. When you can no longer comfort your self with food, you run to God for comfort. You can recover all the lost thought-time and productivity that you lend to your obsession with food and weight. All the hours of research and study can be redirected. You can be relieved of the relentless burden of worry and fear over your weight. You are no longer tied to the fragile and fickle red arrow of the scale.

Your whole self-image could be shattered with the slightest changing of the indicator on your scale...your sense of worth is dictated by the opinions or reactions of others to your physical shape...you are at the mercy of the scale and public opinion. Fasting changes your perception by changing your focus. This in turn causes you to change the way you live. Don't live for food or weight - live for God. Even on a natural fast you will experience an increase in eyesight clarity. On a spiritual fast you will have your spiritual eyes stripped of scales that have blinded them.

After a fast you will see things differently. Your eyes will be illuminated by God's Word and truth. Your eyes shift off you and onto Father God. A fast will give you a new vision and a new direction for your life. Fasting positions us to acknowledge God's provision in our lives. It communicates that He is our source. We deny our selves food and tell Him, "I only want You and what You provide." When we lay aside the daily routine of food, drink, pleasures, and leisure, we are able to reevaluate our priorities.

Fasting is not just about food; it is about separation. This separation represents a consecration to the Lord. A change in our relationship with Him. God promises to bring His light to our darkness. To heal us and make us righteous. His glory will guard us, and He will answer our prayers and help us out in our time of need.

God wants us to do away with the yoke of oppression. Eating disorders are a yoke of oppression - to those who bear it and to those around them. Oppressed people often oppress others. The pointing of the finger represents accusation and judgment of others. This usually involves comparisons, and if we are honest, we must admit to jealousy. God is admonishing us to get our eyes off our selves, to stop comparing and contrasting our selves with others whether we feel superior or inferior in comparison.

For too long we have spent all our time and energy on the needs of our selves. God wants us to spend our selves on the needs of others, to lift those who are oppressed. He wants the fast to be a turning point where we lay aside accusation and judging. He wants gossip and the destruction of slander stopped. He wants our focus to shift permanently from our selves to others.

God is challenging us to fast so that we might become women who are transformed. There is not one of us who in our own strength could provide everything. No matter how much money or wisdon me have, it will always fail us if we trust in it. God will never fail those who trust in Him.

You may or may not be in a position to fast food. However, even if your emotional or physical state prohibits you from fasting food, everyone is in a position to fast something. It may be TV, telephone, magazines, sports, shopping, or hobbies. All of us have areas in which we hide our selves or waste time. I challenge you to go before our Father and ask Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to expose any areas that could be fasted.

Every believer should fast periodically. It is an act of separation to our Father. The one who fasts must do so with the right motivation. If we are not hungry for God, it is because we have allowed our souls to be satisfied or satiated with other things. God wants to be an integral part of our life every day, not just when we are on the mountain spiritually.

Fasting brings many benefits into our lives. It creates a new hunger. When you fast...you become hungry. At first it may be hunger for food or whatever you are fasting, but as the initial hunger pangs or longings cease, a new desire or hunger is formed. Fasting increases sensitivity to God. Fasting works humility. When we fast, we deny ourselves that which might satisfy us. When we deny ourselves food, we often feel our natural strength wanin. In our weakness we find ourselves more dependent. It is a confrontation with the flesh, a time when we deny it satisfaction and provision. It is a time from turning aside from what we can provide and turning toward what God alone can give.

This is often the setting for a confrontation between the spirit and the flesh. I personally find out just how strong a hold my flesh has on me when I fast. This revelation alone is humbling, but in order for the fast to be successful you must allow it to work humility in your. This replaces and reorders your perspective. Fasting chastens or disciplines. Fasting changes our appetite. A fast is a break in our daily routine. It overcomes past cravings and restores or renews a fresh and new appetite. Fasting increases our capacity. Fasting brings answers to prayer. A godly fast will bring answered prayer. It is the atmosphere for answers to questions, direction, help, and the revelation of God. This revelation may come through His Word, or as a still, small voice, or by a strong confirmation of what He has previously shown us.

Fasting leads to quick healing. Many illnesses occur in the digestive system. A short fast gives your body a chance to refocus its energies on healing instead of on eating. Fasting opens the door to God's protection and provision. God promised to be a guard before us and after us. A fast renews your righteousness and sends it on before you. Then as you give God the glory, He returns righteousness as your rear guard. Fasting looses chains of injustice. The kind of fast God lead us into has the power to loose any unjust chains that bind us. It also unties the cords tethering us to any yoke. But this application is not limited merely to a personal liberation for us - it represents God's desire to see us reach out and untie the ties that bind others and remove the chains of oppression.

Fasting frees the oppressed and breaks every yoke. A fast is a time when we take our eyes off our selves and our needs and look around at the oppression and pain of others. In response we learn to reach out in compassion and help, becoming agents of healing. Jesus said that His burden was easy and His yoke was light. When we are carrying a burden other than His, it is cumbersome, awkward, and heavy. There is nothing more frustrating that feeling responsible for something over which you have no authority. It will weigh you down with hopelessness and frustration. During a fast, God checks these areas in our lives and exposes the yokes of fear, worry, stress, and turmoil. He removes them and readjusts His yoke for our life, the one that keeps us dependent upon Him. If you are feeling weighed down, perhaps you are carrying too much.

Fasting is not a burden but a privilege. It is intimate and private. It originated in the secret place between you and God. He waits in the secret place for you to join Him. After we visit with Him in secret, He will reward us openly. Inward transformation brings about outward anointing, blessing, and provision. Inward transformation positions us for the promotion of the Lord. Even in the midst of opposition, the believer who fasts as an act of separation from the world and unto God receives the rewards of God.

This is what God wants for us - that we might be so totally aware of our relationship with Him that we lose consciousness of what is around us..He doesn't want to draw us close to see our flaws, He wants to hold us close to captivate us with His love.