"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." - Deuteronomy 8:3 (Moses speaking to the Israelites)
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” - John 6:51
To this day I still don't fully understand the process of fasting. I understand it's simply giving up something for a certain period of time. But what I'm talking about is how do I know it's the right time to fast? Sure our religions have set apart certain times of the year where you pick something to obstain from for 40 days. They even made a movie on the topic. But unless we hear from God what He is calling us to give up isn't it really just torturing ourselves?
So up until last week I had not considered fasting for a long time. I think the last time I can remember was before the military. But talking with Jason about how The Lord was having him fast for his daughter really sparked something inside of me. And I wanted to hear what The Lord might be trying to tell me. Everyday last week I woke up thinking I should fast that day. But it wasn't until Friday that it hit me. And this is the cool thing that I found out, God doesn't strike you down if you mess up. Because I was pretty sure I needed to fast my breakfast, but I ended up eating some pop-tarts (which were so good). So I decided to fast for lunch. Also, another cool thing I learned is that God will honor our choices to obey Him even if we're off a little bit.
Now I can't claim to have fasted completely from all food for lunch that day because I know my body and how it reacts to low blood sugar, and I still had the rest of the day at work to finish. So this is where the bread ties into what God showed me. I asked The Lord what I could eat, and all I heard was bread. So I got two slices out of the fridge and then thought peanut butter would go good with it, but I heard "no, just bread". So I thought "okay Lord, this is weird." Now there I was with two slices of plain wheat bread, feeling kind of silly, but as I sat down and began to eat The Lord began to unfold some things. He spoke to me about removing the sweet things, like peanut butter, and all the other things we pile on top of "bread" and going back to the simple piece of bread, the foundation of a sandwich. It was really pretty simple but something so profound at the same time that I still don't get it all.
I think the biggest thing that's come of this is the revelation that nothing is as important as my foundation, the bread alone. All the other toppings and condiments in this life are nice and full of flavor, but do not provide the real nutrients my body needs.