A number of years in the past as I used to be exploring non secular disciplines, I discovered myself stunned at how typically fasting got here up. Fasting wasn’t one thing I heard a lot talked about within the church buildings and communities I’d been part of. However it stored developing. In studying the prophets and the Gospels, it appeared that fasting was one thing God anticipated of his folks. Although I’ve but to make fasting a daily observe, it’s a self-discipline I’ve felt invited into, tried to implement, and stay interested by.
As Christians, what are we to make of fasting? Is it one thing we should always incorporate together with our instances of biblical meditation and prayer? What are the non secular advantages of fasting? And, if we determine to quick, how would possibly we start?
What’s fasting?
A fast web search on fasting produces a myriad of health-related outcomes, with intermittent fasting rating on the high. The priority right here is on the bodily advantages of fasting, corresponding to weight reduction. In the event you alter your search to “non secular fasting” or “non secular fasting,” you will discover non secular fasting is much less involved with the well being of the physique than that of the soul. Additionally, you will discover that Christianity just isn’t the one faith to observe fasting, so we have to modify our query: What’s Christian fasting?
We’ll get to that later. For now, in its easiest type, fasting is the act of abstaining, or as one medical journal phrases it “the science of going with out.”
This abstention is mostly from meals, however fasting can embody different issues as properly.
Adele Calhoun writes in her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook:
Fasting is a chance to put down an urge for food—an urge for food for meals, for media, for purchasing. This act of self-denial could not appear enormous—it’s only a meal or a visit to the mall—but it surely brings us nose to nose with the starvation on the core of our being. Fasting exposes how we attempt to preserve empty starvation at bay and achieve a way of well-being by devouring creature comforts. By way of self-denial we start to acknowledge what controls us. Our small denials of the self present us simply how little style we even have for sacrifice or time with God.
What fasting just isn’t
As a result of fasting from meals has an apparent bodily element to it, we’re to watch out about our strategy. You will need to bear in mind what fasting just isn’t. Fasting just isn’t:
- a weight loss plan to enhance well being
- a program to drop some pounds
- a way to absolve ourselves of the guilt of sin(s)
- a technique to punish or maltreat the physique
- a starvation strike to make a press release
- an indication of your holiness to others
- a method to earn God’s favor
This is applicable whether or not fasting from meals or issues apart from meals.
As a last level, it is very important do not forget that fasting doesn’t apply to issues we should always keep away from always. For instance, we’re exhorted to abstain from sin all the time. Fasting is a short lived train; we should always (no less than attempt to) abstain from sin and evil on a everlasting foundation; subsequently, we don’t “quick” from sin. Every part value fasting from is, like food and drinks, good in itself. What’s extra, we don’t need to be sinning with these items—for instance, by committing gluttony—in an effort to quick from them. We are able to have a totally wholesome relationship with food and drinks and nonetheless select to set them apart for a quick. Once we quick, we’re not setting apart one thing evil for one thing good; slightly, we’re setting apart a lesser good for a larger good.
As we’ll talk about later, there are a lot of differing types and methods to quick. There’s not a method or a prescribed size of time. It’s a matter of each self-discipline and discernment, taken up by a person or a group.
Is fasting thought of a non secular self-discipline?
There are numerous methods we might be formed spiritually, each deliberately and unintentionally. The non secular disciplines provide intentional methods we will pursue formation. They’re practices that may assist us develop individually and corporately, in inside and exterior methods. They’re workouts that additional our non secular progress and our relational progress.
Calhoun writes:
From its starting the church linked the need for extra of God to intentional practices, relationships and experiences that gave folks house of their lives to “preserve firm” with Jesus. These intentional practices, relationships and experiences we all know as non secular disciplines.
As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “Don’t be conformed to this world, however be reworked by the renewal of your thoughts, that by testing it’s possible you’ll discern what’s the will of God, what is sweet and acceptable and ideal” (Rom 12:2). Non secular disciplines, corresponding to fasting, might be useful instruments that the Holy Spirit makes use of in our lives for our transformation and renewal.
Nevertheless, non secular disciplines will not be instruments we will wield to drive God, ourselves, or others to do what we’ll once we will, to make ourselves change, or persuade God that we deserve a reward. In Calhoun’s phrases: “Non secular practices don’t give us ‘non secular brownie factors’ or assist us ‘work the system’ for a passing grade from God. They merely put us in a spot the place we will start to note God and reply to his phrase to us,” and, “Our wishes don’t obligate the holy One. God is free to return to us in non secular disciplines as he wills, not as we demand.”
What does the Bible say about fasting?
The Lexham Bible Dictionary defines fasting as “a ritual of abstaining from meals and/or drink for a predetermined interval” and notes that it was “practiced within the Bible primarily as a way of mourning” and infrequently “in response to struggling or catastrophe, at the side of different mourning rituals” within the Previous Testomony.
The Factbook [Logos > Tools > Factbook] within the free Logos Bible app for mobile, web, and desktop is a superb software to make use of right here to discover fasting and what the Bible tells us. The Factbook pulls collectively the customs, biblical senses, key Bible passages, and different assets in a single handy location.
Within the New Testomony, we discover extra examples of fasting. Jesus fasts for forty days and nights previous to starting his public ministry (see Matt 4, Mark 1, Luke 4). Within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s educating on fasting follows that of prayer and forgiveness. Simply as he says “if you pray,” he says “if you quick,” implying that that is one thing that was present observe in addition to anticipated of those that comply with him:
And if you quick, don’t look gloomy just like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting could also be seen by others. Actually, I say to you, they’ve obtained their reward. However if you quick, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting might not be seen by others however by your Father who’s in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matt 6:16–18)
Whereas Jesus’s educating didn’t put off fasting, Jesus’s disciples appear to have modified their common Jewish fasting practices in observance of Christ’s earthly presence with them. Mark data an episode the place each Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist have been engaged in fasting, but Jesus and his disciples weren’t. When questioned why his disciples didn’t quick, whereas John’s disciples and the Pharisees’s disciples did, Jesus responded: “Can the marriage company quick whereas the bridegroom is with them? So long as they’ve the bridegroom with them, they can not quick. The times will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, after which they are going to quick in that day” (Mark 2:18–20). Jesus just isn’t saying the normal Jewish fasting practices right here have been improper, however he’s saying one thing about himself: specifically, that he’s one better than both John or the Pharisees. He’s the Bridegroom; subsequently, a feast is so as, not a quick.
After Jesus ascended, we discover mentions in Acts of his followers fasting. Fasting is there talked about as practiced at the side of prayer (Acts 10:30), worship (Acts 13:2), and when appointing and equipping folks for service to the Lord: “And once they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they dedicated them to the Lord in whom they’d believed” (Acts 14:23). So the disciples abstained from fasting whereas Jesus was with them, they usually took up the observe once more when he was now not with them.
For an exploration of the Hebrew and Greek usages of fasting, try the Bible Word Study guide in Logos (Logos > Guides > Bible Phrase Research).
Extra verses about fasting
As we noticed above, the Bible speaks of fasting in particular person and communal contexts, for petition and repentance and mourning, for worship and anointing to service. Listed below are a couple of extra examples:
“Then all of the folks of Israel, the entire military, went up and got here to Bethel and wept. They sat there earlier than the Lord and fasted that day till night, and provided burnt choices and peace choices earlier than the Lord.”
—Judges 20:26
“Then Samuel mentioned, ‘Collect all Israel at Mizpah, and I’ll pray to the Lord for you.’ In order that they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out earlier than the Lord and fasted on that day and mentioned there, ‘We now have sinned towards the Lord.’”
—1 Samuel 7:5–6
“David subsequently sought God on behalf of the kid. And David fasted and went in and lay all evening on the bottom.”
—2 Samuel 12:16
“All of the valiant males arose and took away the physique of Saul and the our bodies of his sons, and introduced them to Jabesh. And their buried their bones beneath the oak of Jabesh and fasted seven days.”
—1 Chronicles 10:12
“Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to hunt the Lord, and proclaimed a quick all through all Judah.”
—2 Chronicles 20:3
“Then I [Ezra] proclaimed a quick there, on the river Ahava, that we would humble ourselves earlier than our God, to hunt from him a protected journey for ourselves, our kids, and all our items. … So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.”
—Ezra 8:21, 23
“And in each province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was nice mourning among the many Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and plenty of of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.”
—Esther 4:3
“However I, once they have been sick—I wore sackcloth; I myself with fasting; I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.”
—Psalm 35:13
“Shouldn’t be this the quick that I select: to unfastened the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to interrupt each yoke?”
—Isaiah 58:6
“So you’re to go, and on a day of fasting within the listening to of all of the folks within the Lord’s home you shall learn the phrases of the Lord from the scroll that you’ve got written at my dictation. You shall learn them additionally within the listening to of all the boys of Judah who come out of their cities.”
—Jeremiah 36:6
“Consecrate a quick; name a solemn meeting. Collect the elders and all of the inhabitants of the land to the home of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.”
—Joel 1:14
“Then the disciples got here to Jesus privately and mentioned, ‘Why might we not solid it [the demon] out?’ He mentioned to them, ‘Due to your little religion. … However this type by no means comes out besides by prayer and fasting.’”
—Matthew 17: 19–21
“And there was a prophetess, Anna. … She didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer evening and day.”
—Luke 2:36–37
Now that we’ve checked out what fasting is and what the Bible says about it, let’s discover why we would quick.
Why ought to I quick?
Word that in Jesus’s educating, he doesn’t say, “when you quick” however “when.” David laments, “after I wept and humbled my soul with fasting” (Ps 69:10). Many individuals within the Bible and all through church historical past have fasted and written about its deserves: David, Esther, Daniel, Anna, Jesus, and the apostles, simply to call a couple of. From Augustine’s treatise “On the Usefulness of Fasting” to Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica to John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, fasting has been thought of a part of the Christian stroll and a typical observe.
Aquinas attributes this to Augustine: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the thoughts, topics one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the center contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fireplace of lust, kindles the true mild of chastity.”
If even one in every of these attributes have been the results of fasting, it will be a worthwhile observe for us to select up.
Calvin, in his Institutes, echoes the aim of fasting when he writes, “Holy and lawful fasting has three goals. We use it both to weaken and subdue the flesh that it could not act wantonly, or that we could also be higher ready for prayers and holy meditations, or that it could be an affidavit of our self-abasement earlier than God once we want to confess our guilt earlier than him.”
The purpose, for Calvin and others, just isn’t the quick itself however what it opens us as much as, corresponding to a spirit that’s “extra keen and unencumbered for prayer.”
As a result of God is anxious with all of us—coronary heart, thoughts, soul, and physique (Rom 12:1)—fasting is usually a useful observe for our consciousness of ourselves, our physicality and weaknesses, of the place we’re tempted, and of what and who we place our belief in. In creating such consciousness, our objective is to not castigate ourselves however to think about the depths of our want for God. Fasting, then, is an act of reliance and belief—we surrender or put aside one thing for a interval, and we ask God for his sustenance, as Jesus did when he was within the wilderness or when he went away to be by himself together with his Father. Any profit we obtain from fasting is a present from God, decided by him. Our objective in fasting, or in another non secular self-discipline, isn’t to earn rewards or favor.
Calhoun cautions us, “We miss the purpose and endanger our souls once we consider non secular disciplines as ends in themselves. … They’re by no means the ‘be all and finish all’ of discipleship. The ‘be all and finish all’ is a loving belief of and obedience to the God who’s inside us but past us and our highest efforts.”
In his traditional work, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, Richard Foster acknowledged the challenges fasting presents to us when he wrote, “maybe in our prosperous society fasting entails a bigger sacrifice than the giving of cash.”
What does it appear to be to enact this self-denial? Let’s take a look at some examples of tips on how to quick.
How do I begin fasting?
For individuals who are new to the self-discipline of fasting, there are useful guides accessible, corresponding to in Celebration of Discipline and the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. We’ll spotlight a couple of kinds of fasting, in addition to some assets you would possibly discover.
“Regular” fasting
The normal quick is a time period once we go with none meals. Foster writes, “In Scripture the conventional technique of fasting entails abstaining from all meals, stable or liquid, however not from water. Within the forty-day quick of Jesus, we’re instructed that ‘he ate nothing’ and that towards the top of the quick ‘he was hungry’ and Devil tempted him to eat, indicating that the abstaining was from meals however not from water (Luke 4:2). From a bodily standpoint, that is what’s often concerned in a quick.”
Partial fasting
Foster goes on to debate an instance of a partial quick:
Typically what might be thought of a partial quick is described; that’s, there’s a restriction of weight loss plan however not whole abstention. Though the conventional quick appeared to be the customized of the prophet Daniel, there was a three-week interval by which he declares, ‘I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself in any respect’ (Dan. 10:3).”
Absolute fasting
Foster additionally supplies examples from the Bible of absolute fasting, which is abstaining from each meals and water utterly. This sort of fasting requires a lot discernment earlier than getting into into it. As Foster says,
[This type of fast] seems to be a determined measure to satisfy a dire emergency. Upon studying that execution awaited herself and her folks, Esther instructed Mordecai, “Go, collect all of the Jews … and maintain a quick on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for 3 days, evening or day. I and my maids may even quick as you do” (Esther 4:16). Paul engaged in a three-day absolute quick following his encounter with the residing Christ (Acts 9:9). Because the human physique can’t go with out water for much longer than three days, each Moses and Elijah engaged in what have to be thought of supernatural absolute fasts of forty days (Deut. 9:9, I Kings 19:8). It have to be underscored that absolutely the quick is the exception and will by no means be engaged in except one has a really clear command from God, after which for not more than three days.
Fasting for novices
“As with all of the Disciplines, a development ought to be noticed; it’s sensible to study to stroll properly earlier than we attempt to run,” says Foster.
You would possibly begin with fasting from one meal throughout a twenty-four hour interval and step by step work as much as longer intervals. For instance, you would possibly eat breakfast and dinner, however not lunch. After making an attempt that, you would possibly transfer to fasting from two meals throughout a twenty-four hour interval. After attempting this as soon as per week for a couple of weeks, you would possibly end up able to attempt a traditional quick the place you go with out meals for 24 hours.
Foster shares, “At first you’ll be fascinated with the bodily elements of your expertise, however a very powerful factor to observe is the internal perspective of the center. Outwardly you’ll be performing the common duties of your day, however inwardly you’ll be in prayer and adoration, music, and worship.”
He advises throughout your regular quick to “Drink solely water however use wholesome quantities of it. … You’ll most likely really feel some starvation pangs or discomfort earlier than the time is up. That isn’t actual starvation; your abdomen has been educated via years of conditioning to provide indicators of starvation at sure hours. … You might be to be the grasp of your abdomen, not its slave. If [your schedule permits it], commit the time you’ll usually use consuming to meditation and prayer.”
One other sensible reminder comes from Calhoun, “Don’t break your quick with an enormous meal. Eat small parts of meals. The longer the quick, the extra it’s good to break the quick gently.”
Another choice may be to affix in a group observe, corresponding to Lent, when you could have the encouragement of others partaking in the identical practices and the place fasting is joined by the traditions of prayer and almsgiving. Lent is a time within the church calendar put aside for repentance and preparation, main as much as Easter. All through Lent are days of standard fasting (no meals) and partial fasting (no meat). Moreover, some tackle the observe of giving one thing up or taking one thing on in the course of the season.
At different instances unrelated to the church calendar, communities would possibly interact in a quick when they’re looking for to listen to from God a couple of explicit matter. They could put aside someday per week the place the group agrees to quick and spend time in prayer collectively.
Fasting and justice
God has robust phrases for individuals who carry out outward acts however don’t reside in response to his Phrase. In Isaiah 58, we discover his response to those that quick outwardly however will not be residing rightly, those that are oppressing others. They ask God to acknowledge their fasting, however they’re pondering not of him or others however of themselves. God responds:
Shouldn’t be this the quick that I select:
to unfastened the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke
to let the oppressed go free,
and to interrupt each yoke?
Is it to not share your bread with the hungry
and produce the homeless poor into your home;
if you see the bare, to cowl him,
and to not cover your self from your personal flesh?
God says if his folks observe this type of quick, that he’ll reply:
You then shall name, and the Lord will reply;
you shall cry, and he’ll say, “Right here I’m.”
To check this passage extra, you would possibly use the Basic Bible Study workflow in Logos (Logos > Guides > Workflows > Fundamental Bible Research).
Fasting and prayer
Many examples within the Bible hyperlink fasting and prayer. Nehemiah says, “I continued fasting and praying earlier than the God of heaven” (Neh 1:4). Anna the prophetess was described as “worshiping with fasting and prayer evening and day” (Luke 2:37). Earlier than Barnabus and Saul started their missionary journey, different prophets and academics fasted and prayed earlier than laying their palms on them and sending them off (Acts 13:3).
As we’ve been inspecting, fasting just isn’t about abstaining for the sake of abstaining. It’s a self-discipline for the sake of drawing nearer to God and his methods. It’s a observe to assist us filter out distractions, spotlight our dependencies, and switch us in direction of Jesus. It’s a observe, as Calvin wrote, that may assist us be “unencumbered for prayer.”
Not solely is fasting a self-discipline that may help us in creating house for prayer, it’s a observe that really can’t be executed aside from prayer. It isn’t one thing we obtain out of our personal energy, however within the Spirit.
What is going on once we quick
As Foster explains it,
Though the bodily elements of fasting intrigue us, we should always remember that the most important work of scriptural fasting is within the realm of the spirit. What goes on spiritually is way more essential than what is going on bodily. You can be partaking in non secular warfare that may necessitate utilizing all of the weapons of Ephesians 6. Probably the most important intervals spiritually is on the finish of the quick when we’ve got a pure tendency to calm down. However I don’t need to go away the impression that every one fasting is a heavy non secular battle—I’ve not discovered it so. It’s also “…righteousness and peace and pleasure within the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
Fasting from issues apart from meals
It might be that for well being or different causes, fasting from meals just isn’t an choice for you. Or, it could be that the invitation for you falls in one other space of your life. As Calhoun writes, “Fasting reminds us that we care about ‘soul’ issues.”
Given the variety of distractions accessible to us in our present age, it has turn into a observe for folks wishing to reorient themselves to the life the Holy Spirit presents to us by fasting from expertise, social media, or different types of leisure. They could decide to someday per week the place they don’t test their social media and e mail accounts. For some folks, it may be on-line purchasing. For others, it may be sure kinds of meals or drink.
There’s nothing inherently evil in these items, however query to ask is: What’s taking my consideration from God? Once we can entry information, leisure, and media on the contact of a button, what are we turning to once we are unsettled or when we’ve got a while to ourselves? When we’ve got fixed streams of media coming at us and vying for our consideration, are we responding with “doomscrolling” or trusting in God? Fasting may also help us look at the place our belief actually lies. Fasting can remind us to show to prayer and never one other display screen.
Books on fasting and praying
It might be that you’re being known as to the non secular self-discipline of fasting or one other one of many non secular disciplines. If you’re undecided the place to start out, Calhoun presents a Non secular Progress Planner within the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook that’s designed that will help you establish the place your longings for extra of God would possibly line up with a particular observe, like fasting.
However as Calhoun discusses about her personal e-book, it’s useful to do not forget that no useful resource will “make you disciplined, repair your non secular life or drive one thing to occur in your soul. A e-book can by no means make God seem on demand.”
Nevertheless, books might be nice assets for us! Quite a few books which may be useful to discover are:
An invite to let go
Whereas we’ve got an extended custom of fasting and plenty of examples from the saints who got here earlier than us, it’s useful to do not forget that we’re not residing beneath a legislation of formality and requirement. As Calvin places it, we’re not to “bind consciences with lethal chains.”
And, as Foster reminds us, “Our freedom within the gospel … doesn’t imply license; it means alternative” and “to make use of good issues to our personal ends is all the time the signal of false faith.”
Fasting just isn’t a legislation for us to take up. Fasting is an invite to us to let go of these issues we may be greedy only a bit too tightly.
Fasting can also be not one thing executed to convey consideration to ourselves. Foster reminds us, “It ought to go with out saying that it’s best to comply with Jesus’ counsel to chorus from calling consideration to what you’re doing. The one ones who ought to know you’re fasting are those that need to know. In the event you name consideration to your fasting, folks can be impressed and, as Jesus mentioned, that can be your reward. You, nevertheless, are fasting for a lot better and deeper rewards.”
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