Biblical Fasting (part two)
Continuing a study on fasting, I’m exploring why we fast as Christians, as a Church, and why it’s so often done in January. Part one can be found here. To recap, we learned about Jesus’ teaching and His model, as well as the concept of fasting as DEDICATION to the Lord. But there’s soooo much more!
Fasting attains DISCERNMENT from the Lord
We practice fasting particularly in January because we want to discern, or understand, the will of God for u, and often January symbolizes a new beginning or an intention to change our focus/habits and draw closer to God. In the book of Acts, there are examples of the Early Church praying and fasting before important decisions, such as sending out missionaries and appointing elders. They sought to understand God’s will in those decisions.
Every day we are surrounded by voices of the world that want to tell us what is truly important. Those voices want to tell us how we should live. But when we fast and pray, we purposefully concentrate ourselves on what God wants. We discern what HE believes is truly important and what HE has for us. In that sense, fasting is a detox of all the other voices that drown out the voice of God, so that we have a new sensitivity to hear HIM. in the middle of the cacophony of everything else, we connect with God, and once we hear His voice, we position ourselves to obey.
Fasting demonstrates DEPENDENCE.
The Bible gives us the story of Jesus‘s temptation in the wilderness:
Matthew 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
After fasting for 40 days, Jesus faced the Devil, who came to tempt Him in several ways. The first temptation was for him to satisfy his physical hunger by turning stones into bread. Biblically, fasting always means abstaining from FOOD.
Here’s something to ponder: There is a trend in today’s modern Church to “fast” things that aren’t food (social media, Netflix, coffee, novels, chocolate--lots of stuff).
Biblically, fasting was always about going without food. It is much harder, and we should understand that’s WHY it’s harder--because we’d all rather give up Netflix than actual food. This point is convicting for me, too! As I worked on this study, I realized I find it much easier to choose for myself what I’m *willing* to give up instead of doing it God’s way.
Food is essential. It fills our bellies and cures our “hangry” mood. It is utterly enjoyable AND vital for health. To abstain from food is a huge sacrifice on many levels—even social, because it feels like every time I fast, that’s when friends invite me to have lunch or hang out somewhere where I have to decline because I’m fasting.
Now, having covered that fasting means food, I want to address the trend of fasting other stuff. Here’s what I believe: if Netflix is “essential” to your life, to the point where you need to fast it, there’s a problem. If God reveals to you that Netflix (or Facebook or whatever …) is getting in the way of your relationship with Him, then that is an IDOL. And you can’t fast an idol.
Idolatry is not something you can put away for a week or a month, and then pick back up again. Idolatry has to be cast down and thrown out; nothing should be in God’s place in your heart. It’s important to understand what has control in your life. Fasting helps reveal that to us.
Jesus was able to withstand that temptation of turning stones to bread, because although food is essential, He was not dependent on food alone. Jesus was not dependent on bread to fill His hunger; He was dependent on the Word of God to fill His soul. When we fast we learn that same dependence, and we understand what is truly essential. We’re saying that our spiritual needs trump our physical needs.
Let’s think about it like this illustration:
I came back to Spain about two weeks ago. Whenever I return to Spain I always have the same problem. I bring too much luggage. Everything that is heavy, I take out of my suitcases to make sure that they have the correct weight. Then, I end up putting all of that heavy stuff into my carry-ons. Of course the person who suffers in all of this is ME! I have to carry all of that weight on my back in a backpack and in a carry-on bag that I’m pulling behind me, straining my arms with the heavy weight of such a big burden.
It happens every time, and of course, it happened again two weeks ago, too. It’s even worse when I have long layovers where I have to carry those things around with me the whole time. Or occasionally I’ve had to run through airports because of short layovers when my flight got delayed--imagine me huffing and puffing through the airport while carrying all of that extra weight! But I only have myself to blame. Why? Because I think all of that stuff is essential. I think it’s so valuable, that I am determined to carry it around with me no matter what. But when I’m running through airports, with bags strapped all around me, I realize that those things are *not* essential.
Fasting does the same thing to our soul. You may believe that coffee and Facebook and social media and food and all of the other things in your life are essential. But fasting shows you that man really lives through the power of God. All of the other stuff is extra--maybe even important--but it’s not what sustains your life. Only God is the one who creates and then sustains our very life. When we realize we need God more than we need food, we leave behind the weight of things that we honestly don’t need to carry with us.