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Eat Your Tears: Fasting And Self-Induced Desperation (Impact Hard Devotional: Day 67)

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Fasting & Hungering for God

Eat Your Tears: Fasting And Self-Induced Desperation

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence? My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’”

Psalm 42:1

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“When has desperation brought me to a place of transformation through God?”

Will you reflect on that question for a minute? Think back to certain moments in your life when you felt you had come to the end of yourself, and your soul cried out in desperation to God.

Perhaps after a time of immense loss- the loss of a loved one, a marriage, a wayward child, a dream, or a career. In that intense season of loss and sorrow, what did God do in your life?

Think about a time marked by searing pain- the pain of betrayal, abuse, crushing criticism, or lies that marred your reputation. Did the pain lead you to find unexpected healing from God?

Finally, go back to a moment of unbearable shame- the humiliation of being caught in a web of lies, exposed as a fraud, or trapped in a habitual sin. Were you washed clean by the amazing grace of God when you finally stepped out of the darkness and into the light of Christ’s forgiveness?

Do you want to go back to those painful, devastating, and catastrophic moments of your life? Of course not! Would you like to continue to feel the unfiltered love, grace, and presence of God in your life that is so powerful and true that it changes you from the inside out? I hope you do.

That is what fasting does.

Fasting is an intentional choice to suffer in the flesh in order to be transformed in the Spirit. Like the Psalmist describes in Psalm 42, when your tears become your food, you have reached a point where God can finally address the deep hurt and hunger in your heart, soul and spirit. Fasting is a decision to bring your spiritual desperation to the surface by stirring up your physical desperation. Desperation draws you to a place where transformation can do its work.

No one wants to experience immense loss, searing pain, or unbearable shame in their daily lives. Yet, God’s tools for transformation rarely look like coddling. In a culture marked by comfort, distraction, and the numbing of all pain through whatever means necessary, fasting is a way to experience transformation without the loss, pain, and shame of tragedy and discipline.

Would you be willing to try fasting?

Reflection: (Don’t skip this!)

What do I need to know?
How do I need to grow?
Where does this need to show up in my life?

Take the challenge, step up to the task, and watch God transform your life, your relationships and your legacy over the next 75 days in God’s Word.

Join the IMPACT Hard 75 Day Challenge!

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To Equip & Encourage

Eat Your Tears: Fasting And Self-Induced Desperation (Impact Hard Devotional: Day 67)

Eat Your Tears: Fasting And Self-Induced Desperation

IMPACT HARD | 75 Day Devotional for Men | © 2026

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