Hungry for More
Fasting and Prayer
What meal makes your mouth water and your stomach rumble when you hear it mentioned?
Everyone has a meal they love… families have cherished meals and dishes for special occasions they anticipate all year. Feasting together is a gift.
So is fasting… the family of God shares meals, but we also share meal-less times in anticipation for the coming celebration.
Most Christians understand and want to grow in prayer… but fasting sounds foreign to our ears even though it’s common in Scripture.
Why would a Christian fast?
We fast when we are hungry for change in a world with feasts of wickedness.
Fasting is about highlighting the brokenness or disorder of things. Fasting is embodied grief.
Jesus knew the disciples would fast when He was gone because there was something they deeply wanted to change. His disciples would be hungry enough for His return to fast in the future, “But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast” (Mark 2:20).
In a sin-cursed world we mourn and fast over sin, tragedy, or a burden for God to move.
Fasting is a conscious break from the normal patterns of the world to highlight our dependence on God.
The world is broken because of sin and sinful cravings fuel the pain and suffering we see around us. Our selfish desires create conflict and strife and ultimately injustice and oppression. Our sinful flesh is marked by self-rule and self-satisfaction. We destroy those who get in the way of our desires or misuse them to our own ends (James 4).
The Fall is dominated by self-indulgence.
Listen to Paul’s description of lost living in Ephesians 4:17–19,
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
Fasting, on the other hand, is a choice of dependent self-restraint. It’s a choice to restrain our fleshly desires because we wish the world were different. We hold back in hope that God will change us and the world.
This is why true fasting is to work for justice, mercy, and compassion. A world where love (self-sacrifice for others) reigns will have no injustice. A world filled with self-controlled and sacrificial people will have no oppression and would have no need for change. A Spirit filled people in a Christ-ruled world will have only Feasting and not Fasting!
The prophets expect a true fast to lead to true repentance and true righteousness. Today we pray, but soon we must look ahead to how we will follow in faithfulness.
Our fasting is a shout of "Come Quickly Lord!" or "Make All Things New!" In the patient endurance of our pilgrimage, we cannot fast until the Lord's return. We take up a short fast with boldness to say, "At least make this awful thing new, Lord!"
If you take up a fast–remember the danger of public piety. Restraining from food is great if it reminds us that the world is being destroyed by self-indulgence. Fasting is foolish and hypocritical if we are self-indulgent and destructive toward others in our lifestyle while we restrain from food. This is why the prophets condemn Israel’s fasts and Jesus speaks against the leaders of Israel using fasting to promote themselves.
At each the times we would eat, we pray. When we hunger for food, we turn in prayer to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We let the aches of our stomach turn to longings for that final celebration.
Biblical Teaching on Fasting from David Doran (Sr.)
The Meaning of Fasting
Fasting is deliberate abstinence (most often from food) for spiritual purposes.
Fasting can have varied practical applications.
The Length of Fasts
–Fasts appear to run normally from morning to evening (Judg 20:26; 2 Sam 1:12) but could sometimes extend to longer periods (cf. Esther 4:16; 1 Sam 31:13).
–The longest recorded fasts were those of Moses (Ex 34:28), Elijah (1 Kgs 19;8), and the Lord (Mt 4:2). These appear to be abnormal and sustained in a supernatural way.
The Type of Fast
–The normal fast abstains from all food (solid and liquid) for a prescribed period of time but permits the drinking of liquid. This is the most common type of fast.
–The partial fast limits the diet of particular foods, but some is allowed. Daniel observed a partial fast (Dan 10:3).
–The absolute fast requires abstinence from food and liquids in all forms (ISBE, rev., p. 780). Moses kept an absolute fast for forty days and nights (Ex 34:28). The extreme nature and length of the fast of Moses seemed to combine to point toward a Divine enabling. Esther called for a shorter absolute fast (Est 4:16).
Fasting is not required but seems to be anticipated for believers.
Jesus began His ministry with a prolonged fast (Mt 4:2).
Christ's most substantial teaching on fasting (Mt 6:16-18) is joined in context with the issues of prayer (6:6-15) and giving (6:1-5).
When the Lord is asked why He and His disciples do not fast like the Pharisees and John's disciples, He answers by asserting that it would not be appropriate while He, the bridegroom, was still with them, but the "days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast" (Mt 9:15 NASB).
The Motive for Fasting
The Day of Atonement, Lev 16:19 ff.
Times of Distress
War or threat of it, e.g. Jud 20:26
Sickness, e.g. 2 Sam 12:16 ff.
Mourning, e.g. 1 Sam 31:13
Penitence, e.g. 1 Kgs 21:27
Impending danger, e.g. Est 4:16
Commemoration of calamities, e.g. Zech 8:19
Preparation for revelation, Dan 9; Ex 34:28
Worship and service, Lu 2:37; Acts 13:2
Commencing on new ministry, Acts 13:3
Consecrating people to the Lord's care, Acts 14:23
The Misuse of Fasting
There appear to be two main misuses of the discipline of fasting. The first is criticized in the OT prophets and the second was denounced by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount.
a. Fasting must not become empty ritual (Jer 14:12).
b. Fasting must not become public display (Matt 6:16–18).
Conclusions about Fasting:
Given all of the biblical data and the absence of any regulatory commands about the frequency of fasting, how should the believer incorporate fasting into his "exercise" toward godliness?
Fasting is not an essential exercise of spiritual discipline.
Fasting is not an independent exercise of spiritual discipline, but enables us to focus our attention on God and become aware of His presence, and hence we can worship Him more effectively.
Fasting can be a valuable discipline tool to help us: (a) reinforce our dependence upon God and His Word rather than material things (Mt 4:4); (b) break the external control of lives by temporal matters (1 Cor 6:12); (c) bring our bodies into subjection (1 Cor 9:27); and, (d) demonstrate that our appetites are not our God (Rom 16:18; Phil 3:19).
Practical Application Issues:
Establish clear prayer purposes and/or spiritual goals for any period of fasting, i.e., know why you are abstaining;
Schedule and prepare to utilize normal meal times as times of prayer and meditation, not just additional free hours;
Select the time(s) of fasting carefully so as to assist yourself in maintaining the commitment and accomplishing the purposes of the fast period;
Allow hunger pangs to be prayer reminders; and,
Discreetly communicate intentions to those who will be affected by the decision to fast so that you eliminate unnecessary conflicts.