PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Matthew 6:16–18
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others 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.
CONSIDER THIS
I hate fasting. I always have. I have tried to fast for the better part of the last forty years and I have failed over and over again. Why? Well, I have fasted because Jesus assumes I am fasting. After all, he didn’t say, “If you fast,” he said, “When you fast.” Jesus assumes his followers fast. I began my effort at fasting because I believed it was not an optional activity. Obedience required it. Well, that didn’t last long. It’s one thing to put a tip in the offering plate at church because God expects us to give, but it’s next level to pass up lunch at Chick-Fil-A with friends. And friends seemed to always be around at mealtimes. I mean, who wants to be “that guy” who sits at the feast and doesn’t eat because “I’m fasting.” Didn’t Jesus say that was a foul?
I needed a better motivation than simple obedience. What would be the purpose of fasting? They told me it would make me a better person or a better Christian. You know the drill, fasting brings out the worst in us, and this is so we can confess it as sin and be cleansed and purified. In other words, I tried to practice fasting as a method of sanctification. I failed at that too.
So why have I failed? If I’m honest, I have found that trying to white-knuckle hunger just makes me hangry—the place where hunger unveils hidden anger. In my experience, though, hanger does not lead to holiness. In fact, more often than not it leads straight to a hamburger or at least a big bag of chips. Fasting became an obstacle to endure to make it back to food. This approach didn’t make me feel particularly close to Jesus, because most of the time it led to a splitting headache. And of course, it led to a hundred ridiculous questions like can I drink orange juice? What about orange juice with pulp? Can I put flavoring in my water? How long does it have to be to count, and do I need to skip three consecutive meals for it to be a real 24-hour fast or can I just skip two? And would it work to eat something I don’t particularly care for, like say dry broccoli, just so I’ll have something on my stomach? All of that is just another name for legalism. All of this made fasting, for me, an adventure in missing the point. So I took a break.
Along the way, I discovered a new motivation to fast—to motivate God to answer my prayers or at least to demonstrate to God I was really serious about them. I ran into a brand of almost militantly activist Jesus freaks (whom I loved and still love dearly) who took fasting to a whole new level. I would hear people say they were fasting for this outcome or that cause; and they were very good causes, like for someone’s wayward children to return to the Lord or for someone’s mom or dad to be delivered from cancer. After all, remember the time Jesus’s disciples couldn’t deliver a man’s son from demon possession? Jesus said later that kind only comes out by prayer AND FASTING (all caps my emphasis). If I were serious about my prayers, I would supercharge them with fasting to show God I was serious which would hopefully warrant a demonstration of his power on our behalf. And when it came to great awakening, I was all in. So I fasted, but if I’m honest, I talked a lot more about fasting than I actually fasted. And truthfully, in time, it began to feel more akin to some form of spiritual technology on one hand or a hunger strike on the other than the love of God and neighbor. And surely God is not holding back on answering prayer because people are praying but not fasting? So I took another break.
I guess you could say I have been fasting in a way. I’ve been fasting from fasting—at least I have been fasting from the kind of fasting that has proven for me to be an adventure in missing the point. A little over a year ago I began to discover fasting in a whole new light—the light of Jesus. The Son of God, by the power of the Spirit, through the gift of his witnesses—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—has been teaching me to fast in a way like I never understood it before. It is a quite different approach. And it is changing me. For the next several days, I’ll be sharing this journey and these learnings.
My prayer is it will help us leave behind fasting as an adventure in missing the point and lead us into a way of fasting as an adventure which is the point.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, teach us to fast.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE QUESTION
Do you fast? Have you ever consistently fasted? What was your experience? How have you experienced fasting as an adventure in missing the point?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing the hymn, “Seek Ye First.” It is hymn 341 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
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7 Responses
Honestly, no, I’ve never tried fasting. I’ve truly never felt led to try it. It was never promoted by the tradition that I was raised in, plus I never understood how going without food would somehow draw me closer to God. I’m looking forward to hearing a new take on the benefits of fasting from a fresh perspective, from someone (JD) I trust to be honest about this.
I’ve been on the fast track. I’ve fasted, sometimes regularly, more often occasionally, and sometimes rarely.
I’ve discovered that it’s hard to have a happy face when I’m hungry from fasting and while I’m trying not to look like a somber hypocrite. It’s difficult not to try to be rewarded by letting other people know that I’m dodging food for God, so that they can give me some sympathy, admiration, or encouragement as the case may be.
For some reason grooming my hair and washing my face doesn’t feel like it’s going to hide the fact that I’m fasting. Still, I know that God knows that I am trying, and He has promised a reward. Maybe that reward is the humility and brokenness that fasting brings to my awareness. Perhaps that’s what King David meant when he wrote: “I humbled myself with fasting and my prayer was genuine.” (Psalm, 35:13.) Or what James meant when he wrote: “Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10.) If that’s the case, JD, maybe your fasting has been better rewarded than you realize.
One other thing. I’ve discovered that I don’t get to personally know Jesus better by hearing a weekly talk about him, but by honestly opening my heart to Him. Fasting helps me do that.
I feel your pain and joy, JD.
Two days is tops for me.
I justified eating by thinking God knows my heart; I know my stomach. 🤔
Your story is my story.
Looking forward to the “rest of the story.”
Staying 💪’n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, staying strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
Ditto
This teaching of Jesus is really the only instruction about fasting I can find in Scripture. And, it’s a “how not to” word. As far as I can tell, fasting is a response. It’s a response to a big change in direction from the Lord (e.g. Jesus, Elijah and Moses – 40-day, miraculous fasts). It’s a hunger for God’s direction, will, kingdom. It’s a response to being struck by my sin (David). It’s a rejection of my sin and a cultivation of a hunger for righteousness. It’s a response to the horrible brokenness I experience in the world around me (Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah). It’s cultivating a hunger for God’s restoration of all things and the establishment of his kingdom. For me, fasting also needs to be balanced with feasting. I’ve got to be better about celebrating when Jesus breaks in and is present. When the bridegroom is present, the wedding party can’t fast but must feast. Fasting is a response that cultivates my hunger for God’s kingdom, and personal and social holiness. Feasting is celebrating his victories in those areas.
This will sound very, very strange but I fast during the first week of rifle deer season in Texas, where I live and hunt. My hunting consists of sitting in a box blind watching for deer to come to a corn feeder. I hear ya, that’s not hunting, but for me it’s about my time spent alone in the blind. I fast from before sunup to after sundown for that week. I spend my day, alone in that blind, praying for insights or messages that my congregation needs during Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter. I’ll say, my hunting isn’t very successful but my quite time in the blind has produced great results in my prayer life and leading my congregation to Jesus. I also fast, every Friday during Lent, to help me focus on following Jesus as closely as I can while trying to lead my congregation to the cross. Both times of fasting have had enormous benefits for me. But it took years of practice to get to where I am.