A Time for Feasting, a Time for Fasting

Fasting is described as a regular spiritual practice in the Bible. Jesus fasted, Paul fasted, the disciples fasted, the people of Israel fasted…. Jesus teaches about fasting, saying, “When you fast,” with the assumption that fasting will happen as a normal part of a Christian’s life.

Fasting is the opposite of feasting. Spiritual feasting is also commanded in scripture at various times and for various purposes. Spiritual feasting is always a time of anticipation, excitement, and celebration. Spiritual feasting always acknowledges the power and deliverance of the Almighty.

Fasting, however, is used for different purposes. Where feasting gives us feelings of:

well-being

satisfaction

contentment

joy

Fasting gives us feelings of:

            physical weakness
            dissatisfaction
            desire

            sadness               

In the Bible, fasting is used both for:

                1. regular spiritual practice (for example, Jewish leaders who fasted on a weekly basis for spiritual discipline and consecration to God)

                2. special circumstances (for example, when King Jehoshaphat called Israel to fast to be delivered from impending war)

The special circumstances in which fasting are used are typically times of terror, grief, great desire, or significant need. Here are some ways fasting helps you:

·       Fasting helps you to be sad. If you’re feeling sad, grieved, or troubled, fasting helps you feel it more. Fasting is sobering. It helps you to acknowledge and sit with your true feelings, rather than push them away. There is a reason people don’t eat when they lose a loved one. It is a natural physical and spiritual response. Fasting helps us grieve.

·       Fasting helps you to be serious. When you need to take something seriously, fasting helps you do that. It lowers one’s mood, it depletes physical energy, and it helps you to settle into the seriousness of the matter before you. The Israelites did this when they fasted to plead to God to deliver them from impending war.

·       Fasting makes you physically weak. This physical weakness reminds of you of your mortality. It reminds you that you are not God. (Because we do forget that.) When you treat fasting as a spiritual exercise (not just physical deprivation of food), then being physically weak in God’s presence can result in a meaningful and beautiful experience of awareness of God’s power over you and the life that he breathes into you.

One of the things I struggle with in fasting is that I am not able to work as I want to on those days. I’m tired and I don’t have the energy I want to have. I don’t like that; it’s not comfortable. It’s distracting. It is my most common excuse to not fast.

That said…although I do not have the same energy, I do find that I have a greater mental clarity. I am definitely more focused. The world seems to move more slowly rather than at the usual frantic pace. But I am typically amazed by how much I actually accomplish at the end of a fasting day.

In addition, if I practice Spiritual Fasting and not just Human Deprivation of Food, I experience a more conscious concentration on being in God’s presence. My thoughts are directed heaven-ward more consistently and naturally. I am practicing a physical reliance on the Person and Presence of God to guide my every move. Fasting helps me to live a spiritually present life to God.

·         Finally, fasting also helps me get God’s attention. God helps me to fast; the Holy Spirit initiates in us a desire to reach out to God. As the Holy Spirit calls me to fast, then I respond with prayer and fasting. As I respond with prayer and fasting, God responds in turn to that prayer and fasting!  (Salvation works similarly: the Holy Spirit calls out to us about our need for God, we respond, and then God works in response to our calling out.)

I don’t know why God responds to fasting prayers. I just know he does. Over and over, scripture shows us that God likes to respond to us. He invites us to partner in his work with him, to reach out and initiate requests, and then he likes to act in response.

Fasting is something that a lot of Christians fear. But there is a place for spiritual fasting to be a normal part of the cycle of Christian life. Fasting unleashes God’s power. Fasting subjects our inadequate human power so it is in submission to the authority of God.