The Fasting Practice - Week 1
Readings for this week September 16 - 22
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Day 1 – Fasting
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Isaiah 58:5-12
We now move on to a series on the spiritual discipline of fasting. Fasting has a long tradition in the Christian faith. In the bible, fasting usually means going without all food and drink for a certain period, not merely avoiding particular foods. In the Hebrew bible there were certain annual fasts, like the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus. 16. After the Exile, other annual fasts were added to the Israelites’ devotional calendar, often as a way of commemorating various national disasters and events. There were occasional fasts too, some were of an individual nature (David fasting over his sick son, others a more corporate character (the Israelites fasting before battle). Fasting also gave expression to grief and repentance. It was a way for people to humble themselves, and a practice undertaken when seeking guidance and help from God.
But one thing the prophets made very clear was that fasting was not a ‘cheat code’ that automatically got you what you wanted or forced God to answer your request. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah were quick to rail against the idea that fasting would automatically gain you a hearing from God; without right conduct, fasting would be in vain. Isaiah was noted for decrying the hypocrisy of those who fasted, seeking God’s favour, but who neglected the poor, failed to feed the hungry and did nothing to combat injustice. Fasting is based in relationship, foundationally with God, but also as part of his purposes for the world.
Question to Consider
What is your experience of fasting? Why do you think people fast? Why do you think people do not fast? What reasons might they have?
Prayer
Lord God, you have given us so many tools and practices through which to grow into stronger disciples. Guide me to the ones that will challenge me, change me, and grow my love for you and for your world. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Fasting Amplifies Prayer
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Exodus 34:27-28
Initially, fasting was undertaken by individuals or the nation on special occasions. As we have seen there was the Day of Atonement, as well as special times and seasons, or commemorative occasions, or with particularly intense experiences, for instance, when Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai in the presence of God. Most occurrences of fasting in the Hebrew bible accompany grieving, repentance, or periods of intense prayer undertaken for a particular reason or cause. But it does not seem that fasting was undertaken as a regular devotional practice. However, the intertestamental book of Tobit says, “Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving and righteousness” (12:8), suggesting that by this time fasting had become a regular part of devotional practice, something that was more and more common in the lives of the Israelites.
But even at this early turning point in practice, fasting is connected with prayer. You can do one without the other (let’s be honest, far more of us pray than fast). But when you combine the two, there is a noticeable ‘amplification’ effect. Some people describe fasting as prayer with our physical body. When heart, soul, mind and body are unified in the desire for God – when the body yearns for God as the heart does – we are purified of dross and refined before God. And as we will shortly see, as prayer involves both listening to God and speaking to him, fasting can aid us in both sides of this communicative equation. We will hear better; we will share better too. Fasting is a powerful aid to prayer.
Question to Consider
What does desiring God look like? How do you express this desire?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, show me how I can desire you more, and what I can do to cultivate and grow this desire. Help me not stand still but be ever moving towards you. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – When Jesus Fasted
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 4:1-11
When we come to the New Testament period itself, we see further evidence of this more widespread adoption of the practice. The previously mentioned Day of Atonement is the only annual fast referred to in the New Testament (Acts 27:9), but earlier in his gospel, Luke mentions that strict Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays each week (Luke 18:12). Other individuals are occasionally mentioned in relation to fasting, such as Anna in Luke 2:37. Jesus began his life’s work with fasting. The Spirit led him out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days and nights. (Whether this was a voluntary fast or was forced on him by a lack of food is not stated.) At the start of his time of testing in the desert, Jesus fasted. And while this specific tempting by the devil was a one-off event, for Jesus fasting was not.
Throughout his ministry Jesus also assumed that his audience, including his disciples, would be familiar with fasting and would practise it themselves (“when you fast”), but he warned them not to play to the crowd when doing so; not to highlight that they were doing it, but to quietly and secretly fast as if God were the only one who would ever know about it. Fasting is a personal discipline and one that Jesus encouraged his disciples to follow, but in a way that did not draw attention to the fasting or the person fasting. To think of our fasting as a private performance for God only is to truly honour him and to seek him.
Question to Consider
What does the fact that Jesus fasted tell us about fasting and how we might view it? How do you think it helped him when he was tempted?
Prayer
Gracious God, may we be humble in our fasting and in all our practices and disciplines. May we remember the reason for it – and all we do – as a means of glorifying you in what we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – What Does Following Look Like?
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 6:16-18
Fasting is not unique to Judaism and Christianity, but it is found throughout the entire bible, and throughout subsequent church history, both as single one day fasts and as longer fasts too: as a communal observance and an individual practice. So, it has a rich and vibrant history. But it is not just history. Outside the Western church, Christians worldwide still regularly fast as part of their worship of God. Fasting is not abstinence. It is not a restricted diet. It is, most simply, not eating food. There is no set time to fast, and no set length of time to fast. That is up to us.
Jesus assumed his disciples would fast, that it was already something they were familiar with as Jews, and something that was already part of their lives. But he never commanded fasting. Neither did any of the Apostles in the New Testament. They all fasted, but they never laid down a pattern, a regimen or a template that had to be followed. There is no rule or law or commandment anywhere in the bible that tells us we must fast. We don’t have to fast. It is not required. But Jesus fasted, and then said, “Come, follow me.” And later New Testament writings show that his followers did as he did. It is a practice – a bodily spiritual practice, if we can put it that way, that can potentially have a huge role to play in how we follow Jesus – how we open our whole person to his grace to be transformed. It is a way of offering all of who we are, to Jesus.
Question to Consider
Why do you think Jesus didn’t command us to fast? What is your attitude to fasting? What considerations influence your decision to fast or not?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, guide me and speak to me about how I should offer my heart, mind and body to you. Show me how to always be open to change and to growth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Two-way Amplification
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Acts 13:1-3
So often throughout scripture, fasting and prayer appear together. (Notice how Matthew placed Jesus’ teaching on fasting right after his teaching on prayer.) Many times, as we do today, we read of the disciples spending time together in prayer and fasting. Fasting is an aid in hearing God. Part of the refining process mentioned previously also aids in clearing away the distractions around us – and within us. It’s one thing to try and dispense with the external distractions that we know keep us from God (the noise, the busyness of life, etc.); it is another trying to settle our inner selves down, to bring ourselves to a state of calm, and order and focus in which we can truly turn our attention to God. Fasting can make it easier for us to hear how God is coming to us and to hear his will and direction for our lives. We can become better receptors of his word to us.
But fasting is also a wonderful aid to being heard by God, to turning our heart-felt prayers and desires for God and his kingdom into effective world transforming moments. Prayer and fasting together can break through the barriers that stand between us and the release of God’s kingdom plans for his world. Fasting helps us become better, more receptive vessels for his will, not because we are twisting his arm, but because we are obediently, lovingly and sacrificially conforming ourselves to his will and aligning ourselves with his heart for the world. When prayer and fasting link arms, it’s often the tipping point in the struggle to release God’s Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.
Question to Consider
How would the practice of fasting heighten God’s hearing of our prayers and the greater conformity of those prayers to his will?
Prayer
Almighty God, help me hear you better so I can be a more faithful servant. Help me clearly speak my heart to you and know your heart too. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)