Fasting

January 9, 2021

Fasting

During the first few weeks of January every year, many churches promote and encourage their congregation to participate in a 21 day fast. My church does that, and for the past few years I have chosen to participate in the fast. Each year, the fast has been different, and I try to seek out the will of the Lord in my life in fasting. I often am not sure that I will fast until the very last moment, or just what that fast will look like. For me, it’s important that I wait until I am sure what God would have me do, and not get impatient or make decisions without Him.

So why fast? There are many references to fasting throughout the Bible, although there is no command to fast. It is in both the Old and New Testaments and is often combined with prayer. The heart of fasting is to focus on the Lord, to seek His face, to humble yourself, to devote time to God rather than your physical needs. He is our sufficiency and our provider, our Jehovah Jireh.

The heart of fasting is more important than the act of fasting. Isaiah 58:1-12 addresses just that:

“Cry loudly, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their wrongdoing,
And to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,
As a nation that has done righteousness
And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
They ask Me for just decisions,
They delight in the nearness of God.
³ ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
And oppress all your workers.
⁴ Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!
⁵ Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?
⁶ Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the ropes of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to break your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will spring up quickly;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ And if you offer yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the need of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness,
And your gloom will become like midday.
¹¹ And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
¹² Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
You will raise up the age-old foundations;
And you will be called the repairer of the breach,
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (NASB)

The first few verses address the hypocrisy that existed among God’s people, an air of self-righteousness that they were indeed seeking the Lord and attending to Him when they were actually not. The next few verses exposes their actions as being hypocritical, and describes why their fasting is not acceptable to Him: verse 4 actually names “contention and strife” as their reasons for fasting. I can only imagine what that might have been!  We can look like we are doing the right thing, but sometimes that right thing is only in a part of our lives, and there are many dark places where we do not allow the light of the Lord to shine. God does not just want those things that look good, He wants all of us, every part we think is beautiful and every part we think is ugly. He can take our ugly and make it beautiful, so we can manifest His grace and do His will across our whole life.

Then in verse 6 God starts to describe the kind of fasting He wants, and what His response will be. God says that when His people are following His ways He will respond to their cries with “Here I am”, He will guide, satisfy and strengthen; He says that His people will be “like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail”. That is quite the picture of beauty and abundance! Imagine the most beautiful garden you have ever seen; place a spring flowing clear, clean water in the middle and flowing through the garden. That’s you. He takes your ugly and makes it beautiful for His purposes and His glory.

Daniel 9:3 says: “So I gave my attention to the Lord God, to seek Him by prayer and pleading, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” (NASB) Daniel had a job to do: he had to go before the Lord, confess the sins and plead the case of the Israelites before His righteous God. Fasting allowed Daniel to focus more fully on his prayer, to enter into the presence of the Lord unhindered by needing to attend to his physical needs.

In Mark 9:17-29 is the account of Jesus healing a boy who had a devil spirit in him after His disciples had not been able to heal him. After seeing Jesus heal him, the disciples asked Him, why they could not heal the boy. Jesus responded by telling them “This kind can come forth by nothing, except prayer and fasting”. This statement indicates that it is important to incorporate prayer and fasting into the Christian lifestyle. Jesus did not have the time to go off and fast and pray; He was needed right then and there, and because He took care of His relationship with the Father, He was able to do the Father’s work and heal the boy. Fasting helps us to stay in alignment and harmony with our God, be attentive and sensitive to hear and do His will at any moment, and show His glory to the world.

Acts 13: 1-3: Now there were prophets and teachers at Antioch, in the church that was there: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ² While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set Barnabas and Saul apart for Me for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then, when they had fasted, prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. (NASB)

For the church at Antioch, it appears that fasting was a normal part of going about God’s work. Much like we read in Mark, it is just what the church did. Then verse 3 further indicates that prayer and fasting was used in the context of sending off Barnabas and Saul to do God’s work. This is echoed in Acts 14:23: ^“When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” (NASB)

So then, prayer and fasting is simply what we should be doing as believers in Christ. It shifts our focus away from us and onto Him, and allows us to enter into a deeper relationship with Him. There is something especially powerful when God’s people get together, and in corporate prayer and fasting seek Him out, spend time with Him in praise and worship and pray to Him as one.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:27: “but I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (NASB) He wrote this in the context of training for and running in a race to the finish, but the general idea is to train your body to be disciplined and not to give in to the pleasures or lusts of life, not to allow that focus to detract from the Lord. He is God, and He deserves our time, energy and attention.

If you are fasting now, God bless and strengthen you. May you enjoy refreshment through the Holy Spirit. If you are considering fasting, please do your own studying before you start, know how your body works, and check with your doctor if you are going on a complete fast. Let the Holy Spirit lead you to what is right for you in this moment.