Fellow IMPACT 360 alumnus Jonathan Skagfield and I have just finished up a rather lengthy fast. We fasted together for more than a week to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance on a few matters. During the fast we learned a couple of things about ourselves. The first 3 days without food are noticeably difficult. The first day isn’t too bad, just a few stomach growlings. The second day involves a constant awareness from your body that it normally consumes several calories in the recent timespan and is in need of sustenance. The third day is probably the hardest. Your stomach is constantly growling; there is a sharp pain in your stomach; energy levels drop in the afternoon and headaches often come along too. But after the third day your body reacts differently. The stomach pain goes away, and the stomach stops growling. Your energy level seems to stay the same. There may even be times when you feel like running a marathon. On the fifth and six day, it is even easy to forget that you have not eaten in nearly a week. And on the 10th day of fasting, if done right, your mind has focused so much on other things in prayer that it forgets to think about food. On the 6th day though, we noticed something pretty significant. After 4 days our bodies stopped crying out for food as if they needed it. We no longer felt like we needed to eat. The desire, however, remained and even grew. We found ourselves thinking, “I want a cheeseburger” or “I could really go for some eggs and bacon”. The need was not there, but the desire was. Jonathan pointed out that it’s the same way with sin. We don’t feel like we need to sin. Our bodies and souls don’t cry out saying, “Lie! Cheat! Steal! PLEASE!” But the desire is there nonetheless. We find it desirable to do these things and we genuinely want to do them. When we understand that what we want to eat isn’t something we need to eat, perspective on food changes. So it is with our sin. We must recognize that sin involves desire, not need. Sin is something that we want, not something we need. When our desires match up with our needs, whether they are physical or spiritual, then we are walking in truth.