Simon Vibert Online

John Piper Book Reviews

A Hunger for God: Desiring God through fasting and prayer

John Piper
Crossway, 1997

The purpose of A Hunger for God is to encourage the Christian to feel homesick for heaven. Piper seeks to show that fasting is still to be a devotional practice for believers and encourages us to follow in the model of the Lord Jesus who anticipated, not just heaven, but the feasting of the end of God’s purposes to accomplish the fulfilment of His work at the end of Eschaton (Luke 22:18).

Critique

This is not Piper’s best book. There is challenging material in it. It is difficult to refute any of it. However it is content-light in comparison with many others he has written. Nevertheless by example and teaching Piper re-instilled a desire to seek God through fasting and prayer.

The application of A Hunger for God has to be that I do fast and pray more! Fasting is not something that is a regular part of my Spiritual discipline - and this book has encouraged me to do it more frequently.

Fasting is meant to starve sin, not us. It should be used to drive out the view exemplified by this quote from Rodney Clapp:-

"The consumer is schooled in insatiability ... The consumer is tutored that people basically consist of unmet needs that can be appeased by commodified goods and experiences. Accordingly consumer should think first and foremost of himself or herself and the meeting of his or her felt needs."(pp.136f..)