Fasting – a taster
On 3 January we will have a special prayer meeting, as we seek the Lord’s blessing on our church for 2020. We are encouraging people to fast that day – to just drink water the whole day, until our fellowship meal after the meeting. Why do we fast, and how does it work?
Why fasting?
Fasting means not eating food for a set time for some spiritual purpose. Fasting is common throughout the Old & New Testaments. Although in the OT it was only commanded for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), and not commanded in the NT, yet it was regularly practiced (Acts 13:2-3, Acts 14:23, 2 Cor 6:5, 11:27).
Fasting almost always goes together with praying, and seems to be a way to strengthen prayer. Reasons people fasted were
- Humbling, mourning, repentance (Lev 16, Jonah 3:5-8, 1Kgs 21:27)
- Personal needs (guidance, protection – Ezr 8:23, Judg 20:26)
- Concern for God’s work (Neh 1:3-4, Daniel 9:3, Acts 13:1-3)
- Seeking God, dedication (Deut 9:9-10, Luke 2:37, Matt 4:1-11)
All these include prayer as people seek God for various reasons.
As a leadership we are very aware that “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain.” (Ps 127:1) At the start of 2020, we want to seek God, humble ourselves before him, and bring his kingdom and our church before his throne. And like people in the Bible we want to express our concern and dependence by including fasting.
How does fasting work?
Fasting doesn’t impress God or make him more likely to answer us. Our righteousness comes from Jesus and through him our prayers are perfectly acceptable to the Father. It doesn’t change our status. Rather, it strengthens the spiritual experience of prayer.
It’s not just that the time we would have spent eating we spend in prayer or meditation, although that helps. Fasting is a way of saying to ourselves “God / this is more important to me than foodâ€. We are so used to eating whenever we are hungry. But when we fast, we feel the hunger, but we say no. We decide that our spiritual purpose – seeking God, seeking his help – is more important to us than food. And so the whole day, our hunger constantly wants to pull us away from seeking God, while we constantly say no, and keep praying to God to help keep us going. And so fasting reveals our hearts and intensifies our desire for God as we keep seeking him.
Imagine coming to a prayer meeting that evening. The whole day you’ve chosen God over food. The whole day you’ve constantly been reminded of him and regularly prayed to him. It means your heart and mind are much more in tune, much more focussed on God when you start to pray. And praying then just feels deeper and more meaningful. It changes the experience of prayer. And God often kindly blesses such times of deeper communion.
Of course there are dangers to fasting – as to any spiritual discipline. We can do it just to show off how spiritual we are (Matt 6:16-18). It can be just a routine, instead of a relationship (Zech 7:1-7). We can fast to twist God’s arm – thinking God has to answer us because we fasted (Isaiah 58:1-5). Or we feel we need to work our way to God through fasting, forgetting we already have perfect access in Jesus (Col. 2:16-23). We should always remember the gospel as we fast and pray. But it would be a pity if we miss out on the experience of fasting to avoid these dangers.
So, on 3 January (or earlier if you choose), skip breakfast. Instead, spend time in prayer, asking God for strength and for his blessing as we seek him today. Then the whole day, whenever you feel hungry, turn to Jesus in prayer and keep going. And then after our prayer meeting, as we share a great meal together, don’t forget to give thanks!