23 Jan SPIRITUAL AUTOPHAGY
Read Mark 2:18-22
Fasting brings out the best in us.
When we fast, every night while we sleep as a minimum, our bodies undergo the most extraordinary process called “autophagy”. During this time, the body conducts a cycle of cellular clean-up and repair. The longer the body goes without the work of solid digestion, the more thorough the cleaning cycle with optimum levels being reached (in a typical, healthy adult) at the 48 to 72-hour point. (Anyone doing a water-only fast beyond this point should consult their doctor first.) Recently, Alzheimer researches were able to dye corrupted, aging cells and, for the first time, actually watch the process of autophagy during a fast. As autophagy literally means “self-eating”, the assumption had always been that healthy cells consumed the unhealthy cells to process them out of the human body. What they discovered, instead, is that the healthy cells tag unhealthy cells, attack and break them down. Instead of eating them, they shoot them out like a canon during fasting to be discarded as waste.
How extraordinary is God’s design that the healthy parts of a body surround and attack what is unhealthy during a fast? Even more amazing is that Biblical fasting dates back to Moses (over 3,400 years ago) as a discipline of humility and consecration, yet autophagy was not discovered until 1961 and the health benefits of fasting are just now beginning to be understood. It is not difficult to make the correlation of spiritual results being mimicked in our bodies during fasting.
What kind of mental/spiritual/emotional clean-up is happening during a fast? As we consecrate ourselves to the Lord anew and focus upon His internal nourishment instead of that of the world, we surely undergo a spiritual autophagy of sorts, an attack on all that is unhealthy inside of us so that we can be fully renewed!
In Mark, Chapter 2, Jesus teaches His disciples about fasting and uses the analogy that new wine must be placed into new wineskins. When He is doing a new work, the vessel must be prepared to receive it. If we want Him to pour into us, we must undergo renewal first.
We all want to be sharper and more effective in 2023, therefore, we must submit to God’s processes in His prescribed ways, of which fasting is key. The result is that the very best in us will remain, that which supports life, health and stamina both in our physical bodies and spiritually. Lord Jesus, bring out the best in us in every way!