My first exposure to fasting was in undergrad. I had to write a paper for a gen ed Bible class and I choose fasting. If it tells you anything I was stunned by how normal fasting is talked about in the Bible in general and the New Testament in particular but didn't engage in the practice myself until quite some time later.

That is one of the big temptations when studying the text - the disconnect between thinking and doing. I could tell fasting was important but not important enough for me to change my behavior.

Unfortunately fasting isn't nearly as normative now as it was then. Maybe we missed it because it wasn't commanded? I don't know. Maybe even if it had been commanded it would have entered the realm of holy kisses and holy hands - something for them, not for us. We will never know.

But we can make it a regular practice of our faith.

We will be talking about fasting and prayer this month at Wineskins. My prayer is that the articles during this month will encourage you to move past thinking to doing! You will be richly blessed if you do.