Kryptonite

“But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:17-18).

Do you know the phrase, “You are what you eat?”

We often hear this when someone is trying to maintain a healthy diet, but there’s also spiritual significance here. You are what you eat.

When we “eat spiritually,” this refers to what we fill our souls up with. No one typically wakes up and immediately thinks, “I need to watch what I fill my soul with today,” but when our minds are overwhelmed with certain thoughts and desires, we begin to dwell on these wants or wishes excessively—we fill up on anything that helps satisfy the cravings.

Eat your heart out. Is this not what we do when we fill our souls with something to counteract our longing? In the process, however, we snuff out the Spirit of truth. If you are what you consume, then what you consume controls you, and what controls you is what characterizes you.

We have a lot of clutter in our lives. We’ve all got kryptonite—something that we want so badly that it controls us, and we’d do just about anything to get it. What is it that consumes your mind? Whatever you want more than Him—that’s your kryptonite.

When Jesus’ disciples ask Him how they should live, He preaches the Sermon on the Mount, and in this sermon, He teaches them how to fast. What is fasting? It typically means to abstain from food or drink, and it can also refer to abstaining from a certain action.

We don’t like the idea of giving up something we enjoy, but there are new levels, new dimensions of spiritual breakthrough, restoration, and blessing that come about when we give up the things we want. When we disrupt our routines and hand over something to the Lord that’s physical, we begin to see something happen in us that’s spiritual. Why? Because we’re giving up something that we crave—our distractions, our desires, our longings—for more of God.

When we fast, our desire for God becomes greater than the thing we’re craving. You can live a good, Christian life without ever fasting, but the question is: are you feasting spiritually? What might you be missing out on by clinging to your kryptonite?

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