DAY 1 | Hunger for God’s presence

Psalm 27:4

Have you ever had an intense craving?

You know the kind. An idea gets lodged in your head, or you see a commercial and suddenly think, “Wow, I could really go for that right now.”

What’s fascinating about cravings is that they’re shaped by our natural desires. I’ve never once thought, “Man, I’m really craving Thai food.” But far too often I’ve thought, “I would crush a pesto slice from Dani’s Pizza,” or, “I would love some Cheesecake Factory right now.” This isn’t a knock on Thai food, nor is it an invitation to critique my love of chain restaurants. It’s simply to highlight this truth: our cravings are informed by what we already desire. We don’t crave what we don’t naturally want.

That’s what makes fasting so profound.

In the natural, we’re practicing what we long for in the spiritual. We say no to what we usually say yes to, so we can say yes to what we want more of. We refrain from lesser desires to make room for greater ones.

As we begin these 21 days of fasting, the starting place isn’t willpower. It’s prayer. We ask God to shape our desires. To give us a deeper hunger for Him. That’s why David’s prayer in Psalm 27 feels so vulnerable and worth imitating: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

Today, let this be our prayer.

That above every competing desire, we would hunger for the presence of God more than anything else.