Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

Here’s something you don’t hear every day - the Bible tells us to fast. Did you know that?

One example:

“Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” - Matthew 9:15

Reading the surrounding passages, it is clear that the bridegroom is Jesus. He is talking about when he has left the earth. The guests of the bridegroom are his followers on earth. He makes it pretty clear: …”then they WILL fast”.

Not all the time, but sometimes. It’s something that you rarely hear about these days. I have certainly never heard a sermon on fasting. I have, once, heard from a pastor on fasting, who during a covenant members’ meeting invited us to join him in fasting. It’s never really been talked about in a prescriptive way, along the same lines as being encouraged to pray, to read our Bible, etc. But yet, the Bible talks in many other places about fasting - fasting and praying, etc. Check out Nave’s Topical Bible entries on fasting.

It is talked about as prescriptive, to help humility, when afflicted, during consecration or commissioning of leaders, and in many other situations. But how many Christians do you know who fast?

I think I first ran across the idea back in high school. A friend of my best friend did a fast at one point. I never thought much about it. At Bible College, I think I recall hearing a professor mention he’d done it on a number of occasions. More recently, I think it was about a couple of years ago, I began to get interested in Spiritual Disciplines. I knew of prayer, and Bible study, but that was it. I had a sense that there was more to it than that.

I picked up “Celebration of Discipline” which I mentioned in my previous post on the discipline of memorization. In a wander through the local Christian bookstore it seemed to be the most comprehensive book on the subject. It was a wonderful read, with all kinds of rich depth to how these things have been practiced in a variety of Christian traditions. At points it varied in its depth - I thought it remained a little shallow on how to fast, but deep on the purpose and meaning of fasting. I turned to the internet for more information on how to fast.

All the disciplines described in that book were convincing as far as that I should practice them and explore them, but for some reason I was not driven to it immediately. I think God wanted me to stew on them before getting into them.

I tried my first fast a couple of years ago. I decided to try a fast similar to one that Daniel practiced in Daniel 10:3-5. I cut meat out of my diet completely for a period of 3 weeks, and skipped one meal per day. I learned a lot during that fast, including how enslaved I was to my appetite (Titus 2:3). I also learned a lot about how sneaky the Devil is. He can turn anything into a temptation. Because this fast was a promise to God, I was accountable to him. The fact that I had promised not to eat one meal a day was just words, and I found myself hearing those whispers. “Go ahead. Have a taste. It smells great. God won’t mind. He is a God of forgiveness right?” It amazed me to hear these things! I had never before so clearly heard the voice of our adversary in my head. Still, it was a struggle, as at the time I did most of the meal cooking for the family, and it was an inconvenience to make something for myself separately while everyone else was eating. Unfortunately, it did not result in more time for prayer (which is kind of a main point) but it instructed me in other ways.

My second fast I did last year. It was a one-day fast. I had read about a couple who fasted one day every single week of their marriage. I thought that was brilliant, and decided to try it. My last meal was at lunch on a Friday. The plan was to skip 3 meals and break the fast at supper the next day. Again, with the busyness of raising kids, I never realized the benefits of more time to pray. But the real challenge came at the end of the fast, when I was invited out for lunch with my pastor and a friend. I finally decided that I had fulfilled my fast when I noticed that at the time of sitting down for lunch it was actually 24 hours after the last time I had eaten. I know it sounds quibbling, but there it is. I wound up deciding that a weekly fast was not doable given my situation in life with young children.

My most recent fast was actually just last week. It was spurred by a situation our family has found itself in, which I can’t really get into details on because it really isn’t my place to discuss them publicly. But, suffice to say it was clearly a case that we needed to turn to God for a resolution, because it was beyond our control. I was so rattled by it emotionally that I decided to pray and fast until advised otherwise by God. Luckily for me, I was not at work last week - I was taking a course at the seminary. From Monday night I ceased to eat, and would only drink. I probably should have drank more water and juice than I did, but I felt good the entire time. I was hungry the first day, but after that there was just a lingering sense of lack rather than real hunger pangs. I struggled mightily with temptation when I was asked to cook dinner for the kids two nights in a row. On Thursday I recalled that I had committed to breakfast with a friend of mine, and I was feeling at the same time that God was saying to me “Trust me” with the situation, so I felt comfortable breaking my fast that evening.

I felt this last fast was a wise one - it taught me a lot about my body and how it is fed. It also taught me a lot about temptation again. In this case, I felt very good about how God had spoken to me, and about the lessons of reliance on him I learned. I feel my spiritual life has deepened considerably as a result of this fast.

Interestingly, this fast also allowed me to deal much more thoroughly with my eating habits. I eat on demand, I eat when I am stressed, I eat out of habit, I eat when I am sad, or even when bored. Not eating at all allowed me to break out of these habits for a time, and I believe that it is leading to a sea change in how I treat food. My awareness of my habits is heightened. I no longer feel compelled to “finish my plate” or to eat what my kids left to “avoid waste”. I find myself eating a smaller portion, then stopping, and asking myself, “do I need more, or do I want more?” If the answer is “want”, then I don’t have any more. I am hopeful that this will lead to improved health over the longer term, and hopefully a drop in the weight gain I have experienced over the last 5 years of sitting at a desk 8 hours a day.

In summary, I am grateful that God has given me time to look at this discipline, and am excited to practice it again some time. I see a progression in the types of fasts I have done. Perhaps my next one will be a 2 or 3 week fast - a lot of health sites recommend these, but more importantly, I continue to see spiritual benefits each time I set aside my needs to seek God. I would encourage you to try it for yourself, but be careful, and research well what you are doing, in case of medical concerns or health risks.