Fasting

Fasting has fallen on hard times. Between the years 1861 and 1954 not a single book was published on the topic. Richard Foster’s book The Celebration of Discipline broke through in 1978, giving voice to a plethora of disciplines virtually ignored by most in the Christian community. Today… it is usually associated with health and dieting, but for Biblical people it is always a spiritual activity and signified primarily as a private matter between the individual and God. 

There are many kinds of fasts – partial, day-long, 40-day, and group fasts for those who may be seeking one mind together. Although not a required aspect of the Christian life, Jesus seems to assume that it is regularly contemplated. 

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (NIV) 

MATT 6:16-18

Fasting is never entered into expecting God to do what we want. It is centered on God. 

4 Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 5 “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? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? (NIV) 

ZECH 7:4-6

Foster adds: 

“More than any other single Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control 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. David said, “I humbled my soul with fasting. (Psalm 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear – if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we know that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us.” 

Fasting also helps us keep balance in our life as we can allow nonessentials to take precedence. We can crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Our cravings and desires are like a river that tends to overflow its banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channel. 

Usually fasting involves food with a progression beginning by missing a meal (such as a lunch) or an attempt at a lunch-to-lunch fast, meaning you would not eat two meals, substituting them with fruit juices and water to sustain your body. Outwardly you are celebrating the regular duties of the day, but inwardly you will be in prayer and adoration and worship – knowing that every task is a sacred duty to God.

This a big step and of course needs to be entered into carefully given our physical health and care for our bodies. For our purposes in the Urban Monastery the fast may be abridged to a partial experience of missing a single meal or fasting from something that is significant for you as a symbol of what is a regular activity that needs to be given over for a short period. It may be abstention from coffee, or social media, or the “Netflix syndrome”, or news binging etc…

Whatever it is that we give up once a week, may it help us to focus on God and become an inward awareness of what we may have become unwittingly attached. It may be the optimal time to replace these moments with intercessory prayer, looking for guidance with a particular decision, increased concentration on something that has become unfocused, or a walk to reflect on our physical well-being and praying for our world.