On Fasting

So, I typed this post last night but our internet quit working and I couldn't post it until tonight.  Yesterday I finished reading the Bible in a year in chronological order! I try to use exclamation marks sparingly, but I think that deserves an exclamation mark.

As I looked ahead and saw this time coming, I wanted to think about a way to celebrate it, and God led me to do a fast. This past week I've fasted from food, as a statement to myself and to God that "man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."



Now I know, I know. Before you start throwing Matthew 6:16-18 at me, I agree with Bill Bright in thinking that those verses are very often misinterpreted into say when you fast you can't tell others. I think the Lord is far more concerned with the heart, and was responding to the Pharisees' form of fasting, which dealt with seeking props from others. I believe it is possible to do something for the Lord, and be transparent about it before men. If I sensed that praise from others might be a distraction from or even an aim of my fasting, I wouldn't hesitate to keep it to myself. However, I feel no such tension now, and I wonder if the body might be more edified by my transparency over fasting than my silence. It is a much-neglected spiritual discipline, and not just because everyone does it but nobody talks about it.

There are many reasons to fast, one of the first being that Jesus assumes we will fast (i.e. Mat. 6:16) and modeled it himself (i.e. Mat. 4:2). I think most believers know this, but still have a hard time understanding the purpose it serves. In many ways, I don't think we can fully understand it, but we know that God asked us to do it and we will be blessed by obedience. However, there are many benefits we can experience and comprehend about fasting, and I wanted to spend some time talking about those.

As I fasted over the years, I've made a list of different things I've learned about it. It's not comprehensive by any means, but just a few things that have been special to me. If you would like to share anything you've learned about fasting, feel free to hit up my comments section.

On Fasting

1. Fasting creates/triggers reliance on God (much like a trial, but without the trial part).
2. Fasting creates an opportunity to practice saying "no" to the flesh. If you eat on a fast, it is not sin. If you give into temptation and gossip, lie, lust, or withdraw, that is sin. Fasting gives you a chance to exercise using your will, and not your emotions, body, or temptations, to make choices. 
3. Fasting humbles us by reminding us how finite and dependent we are. Not infinite. Not omnipotent.  Not even independent. 
4. Fasting is a vehicle allowing me to spend my passion and desire for deliverance. As Rick James puts it, it's a "flare from the soul," allowing me to express my desire to see God move or respond, without resorting to manipulation, yelling, whining, or bitterness.
5. Fasting is a statement that it's not by my power or earthly power that things are accomplished. 
6. Fasting is an acknowledgement of God, that man does not live by bread alone. 
7. Fasting gives us vision for what it is like when our spiritual side is not fed. 
8. Fasting brings to light how tied we are to the physical.  We are physical beings, as well as spiritual ones.  God does not resent the weakness of our flesh.  When the crowds were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Excuse me.  I'm teaching over here.  Don't they know who I am?  Jeez, these people."  Instead he said, "Bring me a little bit of food; I'll feed them."  God doesn't begrudge that we are tied to the physical; he loves showing up in our weakness and being our strength, and brings that to the surface in our lives.  
9. Fasting shows the relentlessness of my distractions. It teaches me to make a willful choice not to eat. Even then, my whole being doesn't automatically submit. The choice has to be remade over time.
10. Fasting brings to light things that would otherwise remain hidden. 
11. Fasting is a way to humble myself before the Lord. 
12. Fasting is a way to seek having 'more God in my life,' as a friend of mine has recently said.

I finished reading the Bible last night, took some time to pray and reflect, and then celebrated with my first meal in days.  I didn't really plan ahead however, which lead to driving around at midnight trying to find something that was open.  I went to the grocery store first, but unfortunately I got something that had to be cooked in the oven, and the brisket that was currently basting in there was about to take an hour longer than expected.  So, convinced that I wanted a whole meal, I ended up at the Cookout in 5-points.  Who breaks their 6-day fast with a grilled chicken sandwich and fries from Cookout?  This girl.  And I feel great too.

Thanks for bearing with me this far friends!  Hopefully I'll get a chance to post tomorrow about a few things God has shown me as I read the Bible this past year.