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“Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.’” -Esther 4:15-16

Apologies that I am going to focus on good food in this devotional on fasting…

My wife’s very animated Brooklyn Italian family has truly blessed me over the years, a family culture very different from my Irish New England one. Italian family culture revolves beautifully around the kitchen and food. It brings the family together.  My first meal with them was unforgettable. The pasta, homemade manicotti, was brought first thing out to the table, and I proceeded to eat four or five plates of it. I thought that was the meal. That’s how it worked in my house – one dish and that was it.  I didn’t realize that was only the first course, and there was plenty more to come. Course after course of all sorts of dishes with names unfamiliar to me, but smells that were impossible to resist. I ate and ate out of the abundance of all the food.  I ate so much that I could barely leave the chair to make it to the couch to enter into a food-induced nap (I’m sure I’m the only one to experience this phenomenon).  Frankly I was grateful and content but a little overwhelmed by all the food.

 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place

   in all generations.

 Before the mountains were brought forth,

   or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

   from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

- Psalm 90:1-2

Obedience can be difficult sometimes. Whether our desire for food lends itself to a short temper, or the idea of extending grace to someone who has hurt us seems irrational, walking in the ways that God has called us to sometimes competes with the fleeting reality of our desire.

In Ephesians 5, Paul speaks to his brothers and sisters in the church about walking in holiness. In the first six verses, Paul describes what it looks like for this local body to walk in holiness; he calls them imitators of God. Paul goes on to say that “immorality and all impurity or covetousness” (verse 3) should have no part in the lives of those who call themselves followers of Christ. In verses 7 and 8, he warns the church at Ephesus, “Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”