Now be completely honest. If you did not make a hard and fast resolution to go on a diet in 2003, you at least thought about it very seriously. Am I right? You are determined to at least watch what you eat a little more carefully this year … both the choice and the portions. Now that we have agreed to this, let's see what Mr. John Wesley had to say to us about food and diets and fasting.

John Wesley practiced various forms of fasting throughout his life. In a sermon about fasting (Sermon #27), he lays out different forms of fasting as practiced from the days of the primitive church until the present. It appears that Wesley would usually practice fasting from Thursday evening until 3 p.m. on Friday, as was a common practice among many Anglicans.

Wesley writes, "It [fasting] is not all; nor yet is it nothing. It is not the end; but it is a precious means thereto, a means which God himself has ordained; and in which therefore, when it is duly used, he will surely give us his blessing."

Wesley scholar Conrad Archer noted that in June 1763 Wesley called attention to the influence that fasting and prayer had upon a society in Barnard Castle (near Newcastle): "There is something remarkable in the manner wherein God revived his work in these parts. A few months ago the generality of people in this Circuit were exceeding lifeless. Samuel Meggot, perceiving this, advised the society at Barnard-Castle to observe every Friday with fasting and prayer. The very first Friday they met together, God broke in upon them in a wonderful manner; and his work has been increasing among them ever since. The neighbouring societies heard of this, agreed to follow the same rule, and soon experienced the same blessing. Is not the neglect of this plain duty (I mean, fasting, ranked by our Lord with almsgiving and prayer) one general occasion of deadness among Christians? Can any one willingly neglect it, and be guiltless?"

Wesley's "Sermon on the Mount, VII" gets right to the heart of it. He is not exactly talking about dieting as we speak of it today. But he clearly puts "fasting" right up there with the most important things we can do to care for our souls, our spiritual lives and indeed our health.