CAN FASTING BE A FEAST?

The Power and Purpose of Practicing a Fast

Food is the great American national sport. The rise of fast food in the 60’s and Door Dash in the last few years has taken food to a new place in human history. Access to just about any kind of food, on demand, has positioned food as the modern-day Baal. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a good meal (Confession — I love food!). However, food can quickly become our idol of choice. Fasting is the spiritual discipline that reminds us that God is on the throne of our lives.

fasting

 

Fasting and the Bible

Our love affair with food may be the reason there is such a paltry of writing on fasting in the last hundred years. There are tons of books on what to eat, how to cook, how to diet, and how to buy food. There’s not a market for a book on when and how not to eat.

 

In contrast to that, the Bible refers a lot to abstaining from food. Biblical fasting always centers on spiritual purposes.

 

The biblical list of people who fasted is a “Who’s-Who” of scripture — Moses, David, Elijah, Esther, Daniel, Anna, Paul,  and of course, Jesus. Many of the great Christians throughout church history fasted and witnessed to its value — Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Charles Finney, and Mother Theresa.

 

In Scripture, the normal means of fasting involves abstaining from all food, solid or liquid, but not from water. In the forty-day fast of Jesus, we are told that “he ate nothing” and that toward the end of the fast “he was hungry” and Satan tempted him to eat, indicating that the abstaining was from food but not from water (Luke 4:2). From a physical standpoint, this is what is usually involved in a fast.

 

Sometimes a partial fast is described in Scripture — there is a restriction of diet but not total abstention. The prophet where he says he “ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all” (Dan. 10:3).

 

We are not told the reason for this partial fast. It may have been that his circumstances (living in Babylon), and responsibilities (being a Government official) did not allow him, at that time, to practice a complete fast.

 

No matter — the point is, he did what he could.

 

Should Every Christian Fast?

This begs the question — Is fasting for everyone?

 

That has been debated by scholars for centuries. The short answer is that fasting is an important spiritual discipline that Jesus assumed his followers would practice (Matt. 6:16). However, Jesus also warned about allowing this practice to become perfunctory or legalistic. He did not require his disciples to fast in the same way that some of his contemporaries did (Mark 2:18-20). 

 

There are some who cannot fast for personal or medical reasons. These Christians should not be made to feel spiritually inferior simply because they do not fast. Jesus spoke clearly against using fasting as a badge of spirituality (Matt. 6:16-18).

 

The Great Feast of Fasting

So, what are the reasons for a biblically based fast? And can the fast, as Jesus taught it, become a feast?

 

1. It centers you on God.

This is the first and foremost motive for Christian fasting. The first time fasting is mentioned in the New Testament it is addressing the issue of motive (Matt. 6:16-18). You have to get this one right. Whatever other personal benefits you receive from fasting, God has to be the first and ultimate end to your fasting.

 

God questioned the people through the prophet Zechariah, “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?” (Zech. 7:5). If our fasting is not for God, then it has failed.

 

John Wesley wrote, “First, let it [fasting] be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven….”

 

2. It reveals the things that control you.

It may not be food, but forces will always creep into our lives and start to control us. Fasting brings all these little habits that we once enjoyed, but now have a hold of us.

 

We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear— whatever it is — When the hunger pain hits and God directs you to the little things that are controlling you, reflect on what he is showing you.

 

3. It reminds you that God is your Sustainer.

Fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, “All things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting, we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting!

 

4. It helps you keep balance in life.

It’s very easy for the nonessentials to take over our lives. We can quickly begin to crave things that we don’t really need until they enslave us. That’s why the Apostle Paul warned us, “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12).

 

Fasting keeps all these human cravings in their proper place. It reminds us that we must be vigilant to prune the tree of our life and maintain proper balance and control.

 

David wrote, “I afflicted myself with fasting” (Ps. 35:13). This is not an expression of self-harm, but the discipline of pruning that which is not Jesus and finding the true freedom that it brings. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth with set you free” (John 10:3). Fasting leads us to that deeper truth.

 

Getting Started

  • Get a physical check-up by a professional in order to be sure that you are healthy enough to do a fast.
  • Start with a 24-hour food fast, allowing yourself to drink juice and water.
  • Start your fast at 1 pm, after a healthy lunch on the first day and end with a healthy lunch at 1 pm the next day. This seems to be the easiest to accomplish when you are first starting.
  • Build time into your 24-hour fast to spend with God. Don’t waste this time with busy work to “get your mind off of food.” That misses the point. Ask God to speak to you!