06 Disciplines of Quiet Time: Fasting
Listen Here:
Today I want to talk about a discipline that has unfortunately become very unfamiliar to western Christianity, and that is fasting.
Now imagine with me for a second (like really imagine with me) that you and I are having a party, with you hosting, and it's great. We’re singing and dancing and there’s great food and we’re having a great time, we’re having a blast, until, that is, when all of a sudden there comes a knock at the door.
The knock perplexes you because this is just a small group of people and you weren’t expecting any surprise visitors. All kinds of thoughts race through your head about who it could be … ‘is it the neighbor you secretly didn’t invite because they get on your nerves?’ ‘is it someone you forgot you invited? ‘Is it someone who wants to complain about the noise you’re making?’ WHO could it be?
Well you know there’s only one way to find out and that's by answering the door. So you go to answer the door to see who it is and BOOM, it's the discipline of fasting personified in the flesh right in front of you…now, pause right there…What are you seeing as you imagine this story? What does fasting personified look like to you? Serious question.
Think about it for a second.
Now whatever you’re thinking of, whatever you think the discipline of fasting looks like, is a good indicator of your attitude towards it.
I actually did a little research on this yesterday with a few friends and every single person said their gut reaction was a very skinny person who is malnourished (and a little scraggy according to a few). And I bet, I bet some of you thought of someone very similar!
But here’s the thing…if that’s what you imagined, a skinny malnourished person, you most likely don’t have the right view of fasting. And why is that? Well that's because that view truly DOES connect malnourishment and poor health with fasting, and that’s just not true!
-
Fasting, when we look to Scripture, is one of the healthiest and most nourishing practices we can partake in.
And on the surface that may seem to make zero sense, because you are depriving yourself of physical needs that you have. But when we look deeper, fasting causes us to do something the Lord wants from us above all, and that is to be more dependent upon Him.
If you remember last week we talked about how our Father sees in secret, and we emphasized the importance of privacy when it comes to quiet time.
Along that same line of thinking, Jesus says in Matthew 6, verses 16-18
‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’
There are two things from this passage I want to touch on:
One, Jesus is encouraging His disciples to fast in secret, that you may be seen by God and not by others. What does that show us? Well I think it is important to note that fasting, along with the discipline of prayer and overall quiet time in general, is meant to be between you and God. You and Him. No one else. Not saying you can’t do these things in front of others, but we certainly don’t do them to be seen by others. We do them to be seen by God. To be seen by Him. In other words, the biggest reason we fast is for greater intimacy and closeness with God.
Now there are more specific reasons behind why we should fast and I’ll get into those more in a second, but for now that's one thing to point out from Jesus’ words here in Matthew 6…
The second thing to notice from these words of Jesus is what He says first…in the first few words of that passage Jesus says ‘And when you fast…’
‘When. you. fast.’ Not IF you fast but WHEN you fast.
Hello! Fasting is an expected spiritual discipline. In both old and new testament you’ll see that…fasting is not optional, it is expected. With fasting it's not if, but when.
And I want to point that out to you because I think, and granted this is my thought, but I think we keep fasting too much of a secret in western Christianity. I think we keep it a secret in our churches and because of that I think many keep fasting a secret from themselves.
In other words, what I mean, put simply, is that…
We. Don’t. Fast.
And why don’t we fast? I’ve thought about that question a lot and I want to throw it your way…why don’t you fast? What keeps you from fasting? Now if you’re reading and you are about where I was a few years ago with fasting, a big reason why you might not fast is because you simply don’t understand the purpose of it.
And I want to briefly explain why…
So first like I said previously the overarching reason why we fast is for greater intimacy with God. Anything is a blessing that brings us into greater dependence upon Christ and that is exactly what fasting does. So if you hear nothing else hear that.
Now more specifically, the Bible shows us many reasons why we fast.
For example, Jesus fasted in the wilderness before beginning His ministry on earth. His fasting served as a means of preparation. Similarly with us, we can fast as a means of preparing for the ministry that lays ahead in our life. In the case of Jesus, He fasted 40 days, but in your case, maybe it's fasting for a weekend ahead of a big work week or maybe it's fasting for a day as you look ahead to an important event/meeting/call/interview or witnessing opportunity, or maybe you choose to fast for a meal and you choose to pray during the time you normally eat because you have a meeting with a non-believer later that day.
Whatever it may be, we can all fast like Jesus did, as a means of preparing for ministry.
Another reason many fast in Scripture is for wisdom from God. Moses did it in the old testament, Paul and Barnabas did it in the new testament in Acts 13 & 14…fasting for wisdom is a biblical thing to do.
You also see some fasting for repentance in the book of Jonah and Joel, fasting for deliverance and guidance like David in 2 Samuel 12, you see people fasting for humility, for protection, etc.
Over and over again in Scripture, you read of people fasting. And though I kept it brief, you can tell there can be many reasons behind why we fast.
BUT, these fasts have one thing in common, and that is that they all center around God. It’s all about Him. It’s all about depending upon Him. And so for me, I’ve always fasted with the sole purpose of wanting more of Him. And one of my favorite examples of that kind of fasting can be found at the beginning of Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas are in Antioch and Scripture says
‘…while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off’.
I mean wow. These verses excite me. They really do. And they excite me because the Holy Spirit met Paul and Barnabas in their fast and sent. them. out. He gave them direction, He gave them guidance, He gave them greater manifestation of Himself.
To me that's a pretty good picture of what fasting is about and I love it. I just love it. Now I won’t get into detail on how to fast and how long to fast and what kinds of fasts to do, but I do want to be on record saying this: You have to fast with intentionality. You can’t fast to fast. You have to fast with an intention and you need to pursue it. Every example I’ve just given of Jesus fasting, Moses fasting, Paul fasting, David fasting, it all had a purpose and that purpose was not to ‘just do it’ (S/O Nike).
Anyways, I’d encourage everyone to fast with intention.
If you’re going to food fast in order to gain wisdom then use the time you’d normally use to eat to seek the Lord and ask for the wisdom that He says He gives generously to all without reproach.
If you’re going to fast from social media in order to grow in intimacy with God, then don’t fill the time you’d normally spend on Instagram surfing the internet and answering text messages. Use that time to seek God.
Do you guys get where I’m going? Hopefully you do.
Fasting puts us in our rightful place before God, and that is a place of complete dependence. When we fast, we intentionally put ourselves in a place that requires full dependence upon Him to provide.
-
Now lastly I want to tie this into our quiet times. The reason why I included this in the disciplines of quiet time is because the overarching reason why we have quiet time is what?
Hopefully you got it, it's ‘to be’ with God. To grow closer to Him.
And when we fast properly, that’s exactly what happens. We grow closer to God…we reach that objective. We truly do.
Quiet time is a means of cultivating a relationship with God, and like I said earlier fasting is an expected discipline within that. So that means we should fast as part of our cultivating relationship with God. We should fast as part of our quiet time.
Now…my call to action for you, whoever you are, wherever you may be listening to this podcast, is to do a one or three day fast sometime soon in order to seek God and His presence. Do it with the sole purpose of just ‘being’ with Him. Do it so that you can ‘draw near’ to Him, and I promise you, rather He promises you in His Word, in James 4:8, that when you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you.
God will reward your pursuit of Him. I know I’ve said that a lot but I feel the need to say it again. God will reward biblical fasting. Back to verse 18 in Matthew 6…Jesus says our Father who sees in secret will reward you. He will. He truly will. It’s worth it. HE’s worth it.
If there’s anyone worth skipping a meal for, it's Jesus. Can I get an amen?
I love you all! One more episode next week….see you then :) God bless.
