Lent starts on 2 March. This year at Watermark we will be following the One App as last year and basing our sermon series around the 7 “I AM” sayings in John’s Gospel. However, Lent from the earliest times has been a period of fasting. Here is an article encouraging us to actively consider fasting this Lent as a church family.
Fasting is all the rage in popular media. In 2019, it was the trendiest weight loss search term. From fitness trainers to clinicians fasting has entered our vocabulary again after a long absence. However there is a vast difference between ‘secular’ fasting and biblical fasting. In the secular world, you’re fasting to improve your physical health. In Scripture, you’re fasting to improve your spiritual health. Popular fasting is focused on yourself, Christian fasting is focused on God. The key point is this: We fast in order to feast on God. And fasting is about going without food. You can go without coffee or Candy Crush for a day but that’s abstinence not fasting. Fasting requires the cessation of food for a period of time, a meal or several meals, since food is at the biological heart of what gives us life and strength. Coffee and Candy Crush – though you may beg to differ – aren’t.
Does the Bible command fasting?
There is no explicit NT command to fast. But it is assumed. Moses fasts (Dt 9:9), Elijah fasts (1 Kgs 19:8), David fasts (2 Sam 12:16), Esther fasts (Esther 4:16), Jesus fasts (Lk 4:2), Paul fasts (2 Cor 11:27), the early church fasts (Acts 13:3). Jesus says “When you fast…”(Matt 6:16) not “If you fast..” He tells the Pharisees, when he has gone, “then they [his disciples] will fast” (Matt 9:15). For centuries, the church practiced fasting every Wednesday and Friday. Lent was a fixed time in the yearly calendar of 40 days of fasting (eating one meal only per day) in preparation for Easter. Around the world from Korea to Nigeria, fasting is commonplace today. It is only in recent years that fasting has become an alien practice within certain, generally more comfortable, parts of the church.
Why have most Christians in history assumed that fasting was an important spiritual practice to undertake regularly? For the sake of growing more Christlike.
Paul tells Timothy “train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim 4:7-9).
He is saying while it’s healthy to work out at the gym to keep our bodies (which will die) in shape, how much more eternally significant is it for us to be actively and intentionally working out our spiritual muscles to keep our hearts in shape. Fasting is one such means of training. Many of us mistakenly assume that spiritual formation happens automatically by listening to sermons or reading the Bible. Others assume that all forms of effort and discipline are legalistic or mere tradition and should be avoided. But Dallas Willard helpfully says “grace is not opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.” We fast not to earn God’s approval but to enjoy his approval. We fast to enjoy the full blessings Christ has purchased for us. So as we fight our flesh and pursue Christ by the power of the Spirit, he changes us ever more into his likeness.
How does it do that?
1) Fasting reminds us of our utter dependence on God.
In our food-rich, instant-gratification culture, it is difficult for us to comprehend Jesus’ prayer “Give us this day our daily bread.” For his hearers in subsistence-living, poverty-stricken Palestine, it wasn’t. The reality is that the very substance that enables us to live (food) is a gift from our loving heavenly father. Fasting awakens us to see our dependence on God’s provision again. It can lead to a greater gratitude realizing every meal is a gift of grace not a plate of entitlement.
2) Fasting gives space to focus on and hear from God.
In the busy pace of HK, it is hard to ‘get away to be with Christ’. The removal of a meal or 3 grants us that space to slow down and truly feast on Him. The idea of fasting is not simply to skip a meal and fill the time with Netflix or catch up on extra work. It is to pray a Psalm, read the Gospel of John on the One App, meditate on a verse, intercede for the lost in your office, reflect on Christ’s love for you, spend time quietly in his presence.
3) Fasting trains us to suffer well.
Here’s what John Mark Comer in his excellent book, “Live No Lies” says:
fasting is a way to turn your body into an ally in your fight with the flesh rather than an adversary…Fasting trains our bodies to not get what they want. …Fasting is practicing suffering; it’s teaching our bodies to suffer. Suffering is unavoidable in life; joy is not. In fasting we’re learning how to suffer with joy. p.178,9
As Richard Foster says “More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us.” You will get hangry, anxious or feel sad in the initial phases of fasting. As time goes on much of that will pass. But in our instant feel-good, get-what-I-want-now, comfort-seeking world, it is training our spiritual muscles to delight in delayed gratification. It is strengthening our souls to say ‘no’ to temptation and to say my joy is in Christ. It is saying, I want Jesus more than I want to have life go my way. That is humbling. That is sanctifying. And if done regularly in the power of the Spirit will bear much fruit later in our lives.
4) Fasting is spiritual warfare
Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness, and the devil came to him tempting him to satisfy himself, to prove himself, to glorify himself. This is where Jesus says “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Satan is constantly doing the same to us. In fasting we are saying “Jesus is my satisfaction”, “I can be weak and find my strength in God” and “I’m living for Him not for me.” This is at the heart of fighting our flesh and fighting the war for our souls so Jesus can rule in our hearts.
Practically
a. Start small
- Take the steps that you are able to (If you are pregnant or have a related health condition, please seek your doctor’s advice before fasting).
- Cut out one, two or three meals on a chosen day for every week of Lent (starting 2 March). Drink lots of water only. Cut out coke and sugary drinks.
b. Start communally
- Take the day your CG meets as the day to fast. When you meet, come together to share your experiences and how God is working in you.
- If you are not in CG, find one other person to do it together with. Encourage each other during the time in what you’re reading or praying for.
c. Start intentionally
- Expect to feel hangry, tired or weak to start with. This is normal. This is the experience of suffering. It takes time to wean ourselves off being feeling-driven. If you feel nothing or it’s easy, try cutting out another meal! These feelings weaken over time.
- Plan the extra time you have (when you’re not eating) with reading Scripture from the One App or a Psalm. And prayer. Especially, pray for others.
- When you are tempted to feel miserable or only to think about food, remind yourself: “The LORD is my strength and my song, He is my salvation.” Ps 118:14.. Turn your thoughts outwardly to pray for someone else who is suffering at this time.
d. Break the fast gratefully
- Finish your fast not by binging on as much food as possible, but in a light meal, fruit juice or congee.
- Before eating, praise God for the gift of food, and his constant provision for you. Praise him that he has given you enough strength for today.