Fasting From Sugar, Feasting On God's WordNäide

Day Three

Taste and See

Scripture: Psalm 34:8–10

I do a 40-Day Sugar Fast a few times a year. It’s not that I want to live a fasting life, it’s that I need to live a feasting life. Each time I forget to feast, I fast in order to remember. 

A few days into my last fast, I was putting dishes away when I noticed two of our family Bibles on the kitchen counter. My husband’s big, blue study Bible and the slender, brown, leather-bound one I usually keep in my purse. As my stomach growled, I found myself inspired. Immediately I pulled out my prettiest cake stand and placed it on the countertop, stacking the Bibles on it. Together they looked like a multi-tiered cake on display. I smiled. 

Over the next thirty-five days, I kept the cake stand front and center. When I found myself bored and looking for something to nibble on, I was reminded to feast on the Word! Each time I was tempted to mindlessly grab a handful of sugar-coated something, I’d grab hold of my well-worn Bible instead. Fasting from sugar and feasting on God’s words became the theme of my afternoons and evenings—any time of the day or night that my stomach growled again. 

We find the imagery of consuming God’s Word throughout Scripture. In Ezekiel 3:3 we read that God commanded the prophet Ezekiel to eat a scroll containing His Words. The prophet responded, “So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.” The psalmist tells us to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). And in Revelation 10:8–11, John was charged to eat the scroll that an angel handed to him.

Devouring God’s Word is the secret to our fasting days, the key to stopping us from consuming anything and everything else. 

Are you hungry to ingest the transforming and filling presence of Christ? You get to do that each time you “consume” His words. Fasting may transform your diet, but feasting will change your life. 

Oh Lord, You are so good to chase me down in the midst of my addictions and afflictions. This is about so much more than sugar. Teach me to live a feasting life. In the redemptive name of Jesus, Amen.