Fasting for Spiritual Growth

Why would I fast?

Today we are going to look at the spiritual discipline of fasting which is a discipline that very few of us have ever really tried. I mean outside of eating breakfast which was truly meant to be a breaking of the fast that one has between the evening meal and the morning meal, this kind of fast is usually the only kind we have ever cared about. Most of us have heard about fasting but we assume that it is meant for the super religious or fanatics among us. One author I was studying this week described Fasting as being “Odd for God”, and I think this is a common thought by most Christians because fasting seems to be a type of self-denial relegated to religious fanatics or perhaps monk like Christians. Another pastor said that, “Fasting is the kale of the spiritual disciplines. We know it’s good for us, but we don’t seek it out on the menu.” Fasting is a topic that very few pastors talk about because A. they don’t practice it themselves, B. they don’t know much about it, C. they aren’t sure why they should fast, and D. all of the above. I must admit I also fall into each of those categories. In fact when I was deciding on this Grow Series of Sermons I used a series of workshops done by another church as a outline to give me an idea of topics and when I saw this one on the list I was like. Hmm, well I guess when I get there I can choose to skip that one or not. However, as I began to study and pray this past week I realized more and more that I could not skip this important spiritual discipline.

Here is a truth about fasting that I didn’t know. Author and theologian Don Whitney studied the scriptures and found out this about Fasting, “In most Christian circles you will rarely hear fasting mentioned, and few will have read anything about it. And yet it's mentioned in Scripture more times than even something as important as baptism (about seventy-seven times for fasting to seventy-five for baptism).” So why is this such a neglected portion of our Spiritual disciplines? I believe it is because:

We aren’t exactly sure what to do or how to fast.

We aren’t sure why we should fast.

We aren’t sure what it is supposed to accomplish.

We aren’t sure if it is something that we should be doing.

Lastly, let’s be honest with ourselves, there is a certain amount of fear associated with fasting because we aren’t exactly sure if we want to do something seemingly so drastic.

Therefore, let’s take a look at fasting and see if it clears up some of these misunderstandings.

Misunderstood Reasons

Fasting is for Gandhi - Truthfully when I think about fasting one the images that floats into my mind is that of some eastern mystical person who is on a hunger fast for the purpose of civil change. The person that comes to mind for me is Gandhi who often fasted in order to gain attention to a conflict he felt needed to be heard. The effectiveness of this kind of fast depended on not only the visual of Gandhi’s emaciated body but on the necessity of his act being covered by the media so that the world would see and hear the reasons for the fast. However, let me tell you this is absolutely not what we are here to talk about today. Jesus makes that abundantly clear in Matthew 6:16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” For the believer this type of “attention getting fast” is not what a fast is all about. We are going to get more into the whys and how to’s of fasting soon but for now I just want you to understand a Gandhi type fast is not what we are after.

Another misunderstood reason why some people fast is they believe that they can influence God through their fasting. The idea is rooted in the concept of God helps those who help themselves mantra. The idea is that because you are doing this very pious and religious action God has to do what you want Him to do. Another metaphor for this would be a vending machine. I put in my 24 hour fast as my payment and God has to give me my request. Friends that is just not how God works. We cannot earn God’s favor by our actions. The Bible rightly says in Romans 3 that there is none of us righteous and all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore the idea that our actions can in some way earn us the favor of God is useless. Nothing outside of the work of Christ on the Cross has any effect on our relationship with God.

This brings up another Another thing that we need to clear up is the fact that fasting is not intended for non-Christians. Now I know if you are here today and you are not a Christian you may have just checked out when I said that. You came because someone invited you or you just felt the need to be in church today and now this pastor up here has just said that the main topic of the day is not intended for you to hear. Let me explain myself. Fasting as the world sees it is meant for attention getting but fasting in a Christian manner is meant to draw the Christian closer to God. If you haven’t come into a relationship with God then drawing closer to Him is kind of a useless task. However, it is that drawing closer to God aspect that your heart is yearning for. I don’t have any way of physically reading you or any special powers to see into your mind and heart but I know that your life is a series of broken promises, hard consequences, tragedy, loneliness, pain and even at times thoughts of suicide, and through it all you have always wondered if there was a better way, someone or something that might make life worth living. I am here to tell you that God is the answer to that question. What you need is the forgiveness of God for the sins that you have committed anything else is placing a band-aid on a gaping wound. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for your sins and then to rise again defeating death so that you can defeat it as well. If you will accept Jesus as the forgiver of your sins and the savior of your life then the Bible says that you will be saved and you will get to be with God in Heaven for all eternity where brokenness, sin, tragedy, consequences, pain and loneliness will be no more. God doesn’t promise a perfect life in the here and now but in the ever after we will know perfection and we will get to worship God perfectly. If you would like to accept Christ as your savior please talk to the person who brought you or you can come to me or pastor Andrew after the service today and we would love to walk that through with you.

Once you have recieved Christ as your Savior and you have started to mold your life to His you will find many tools in order to deepen your relationship with God. Some these tools which we also call spiritual disciplines are tools that we have been covering over the past several weeks: prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, obedience to God’s laws, giving, discipleship, evangelism, and yes Fasting.

Christ-Centered Fasting

Fasting is a Spiritual discipline and if you don’t believe me let’s ask Jesus. Turn with me to the same passage we looked at last week when we were studying prayer; Matthew 6. Look at vs. 2. (Read 1-4) Pay attention to the words “When you do a charitable deed”. Ok now look at vs. 5. (Read 5-8). Did you see it again. “When you pray”. The word Jesus uses here is “When” not “if” and I am pretty sure none of you have decided that charitable deeds and prayer are optional. No we generally understand that these two spritiual disciplines aren’t optional because if you don’t pray and you don’t give then you are being obedient. OK, so now look down at verse 16. (Read). Ut oh, did you see it again, “When you Fast”. Jesus doesn’t leave fasting as an option either. He knows that we are in need of this kind of spiritual discipline. Furthermore if you want to join me by turning over 3 chapters to Matthew 9. Look at verses 14-15 (Read). We are in that time, the bridegroom has left and now is the time for us to mourn His leaving. Therefore we are to fast and we are to pray and we are to give. These are spiritual disciplines that we need in order to grow.

The purpose of fasting then has to be defined and explained in order for us to really grasp the “Why would I fast?” question. So let’s put together a simple definition. In order to mark this type of fast from all other worldly fasts let’s call it a Christ Centered Fast and the definition is this: A Christ-centered fast is the Christian's self-denial of a physical aspect of their needs in order to remind them of their dependence on God, their need to clarify God’s truths and will on their lives, and to humble themselves before their Sovereign God.

Now let’s take this definition apart and work out the details. The first thing we need to look at is the self-denial portion. The concept here is that for a fast to be a fast it needs to be a hardship to the one fasting. The mindset of the Christian is to deny oneself in order to learn, grow, be humble, cry out, feel the guilt of sin, crying out on someone else’s behalf, desiring to seek God’s will, wanting to see worldly change, etc. Therefore, for it to be a fast it has to cost you something. I had plenty of friends in High School who were Catholic and they had to “fast” for lent and they would give up soda for 40 days, which seemed like a pretty useless fast. However, I am not much better. Right after college I was in a church that was in a building campaign and they asked the congregation to fast for 40 days in order to seek God on how much we could give toward the goal. I decided that for the 40 days I would give up TV. I am pleased to tell you that I was able to not watch any TV shows for 40 days but I did watch movies every night. This meant that the time that I was supposed to be using to pray during my fast was just taken up with another form of pleasure. This isn’t what fasting is all about.

We are to deny ourselves something needed in order to actually fast. So this is why normal fasts are about abstaining from food. These are the fasts we see most often in the Bible. The fast that most readily comes to mind for this is the fast that Jesus does before starting His earthly ministry in Luke 4:2 “being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.” This was a miraculous fast in that Jesus went 40 days without food but it does not say he went without water. Going without water is dangerous for us humans so don’t do that for long periods.

Another kind of fast would be the kind that you take away from other things or pleasures like I attempted to do with my TV fast. However, it has to be something that not only denies your flesh but also something that you can’t circumvent with some other pleasure like I did. Rachel and I did this for two reasons back when Noah was just a baby. It was Lent which is the 40 days prior to Easter and we decided we wanted to both fast for God and also do something that would benefit our lives. This type of fast is depicted for us in scripture in Daniel when Daniel and his friends chose to not eat the food given to them by king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel instead asked Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Daniel 1:12 ““Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.” So, Rachel and I fasted carbs for 40 days but not for such noble reason of staying pure and not defiling ourselves. Instead, it was to take more time in prayer and preparing our hearts for remembering the sacrifice and resurrection. I can’t say that I really spent a lot of my fasting of Carbs praying or preparing my heart but it did help me to think about God often when I really wanted a piece of pie or just simply a sandwich. The greater benefit was that I lost like 15 pounds, but unfortunately I found them again before another 40 days was up.

What does Fasting accomplish?

Dependence on God

Let’s continue on in taking our definition of fasting apart. One of the biggest and best reasons to fast is to declare your dependence on God. There is nothing that I can to in order to earn God’s favor, there is nothing I can do in order to earn salvation. If I break that down to the level of living and breathing I realize that everything that I have even the very air in my lungs is a gift from God. When I come to this conclusion and I actually believe it then I start to put my trust in God and not myself. Fasting with Dependence on God in mind reminds us that God is in control and we are not. The hunger pangs and the times of self-denial further our thoughts of God’s sovereignty over our lives.

Therefore when we should take these times of fasting to feel sorrow for our sin as David did for his Child in the Bathsheba incident. 2 Samuel 12:15–17 “Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.” David not only grieved the fact that His child was dying but also he had just been rebuked by Nathan for the sins that David had committed. David recognized his need to repent but also to depend upon God on behalf of his child. Once the child died David ended the fast because God chose to do things God’s way and not Davids way and as God is sovereign He has that right. 2 Samuel 12:21–23 “Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.””

2 Samuel 12:21–23 NKJV

Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

2 Samuel 12:15–17 NKJV

Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

Clarity of God’s Truths and Will

The next part of the definition I want to cover is that we fast in order to find clarity. This is modeled for us in the book of Esther where Esther is raised up to be the queen of Persia but the evil Haman uses his position to influence the king against all the Jews in the country. Esther calls out to her people in order for them to fast and pray for the protection of the Jewish People. Esther 4:16 ““Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”” Esther’s call to the Jewish people was to seek God’s will for her in approaching the King even though it was illegal. She fasted in order to help her determine God’s will in the situation and obviously God’s will was to confront the King with Haman’s evilness.

Like Esther we desire to know the direction that we should go or sometimes we desire to understand a particular problem better. Fasting in this situation is less about getting an answer and more about allowing the fast to drive your prayer. As I said before a fast does nothing to change God’s mind or earn you favor in His sight but what it does do is remind you to pray. When you are denying yourself food or some other pleasure there will be times when you are craving that thing or your stomach is making noises and it is in those moments when you should be remembering to call out to the Lord. Your cry should be something like, “God, I desire to know your will in this specific situation therefore I am asking for you to change my desires into what you want, change my thoughts to your thoughts and allow me to catch a glimpse of your will.”

Esther 4:16 NKJV

“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

A Humble Attitude of the Believer

Another aspect of fasting is to humble yourself before the Lord. This is all about recognizing your weaknesses and inability to provide for yourself and your absolute need for God. Even when dealing with the brokenness in the world around you. When we see the culture going crazy, when we see those we love facing trials of their own making, when we experience hatred and persecution. It is during these times where we should be humbling ourselves before the Lord and take the time to fast and pray. This is what David did when he saw enemies encamp against him. Psalm 35:11–14 “Fierce witnesses rise up; They ask me things that I do not know. They reward me evil for good, To the sorrow of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.” David’s fasting was done in order to humble himself before the Lord because his heart was breaking for his enemies who didn’t know that they were deep in their own sin. As we mourn for the world around us or for those who can’t seem to get out of their own way we too should humble ourselves seeking Godly wisdom and placing their struggles in our thoughts as we pray.

How Do I fast?

We have defined Fasting, we have looked at the reasons why you should fast, we have looked at how it changes our perspective towards God’s perspective, we have seen how fasting points us to prayer, now let’s quickly look at how we should Fast. The answer to how is found in the doing. Remember the words of Christ who said, “When you Fat” not if but “When”. I have known people who make fasting a normal part of their schedule not necessarily weekly and not necessarily on a schedule but they make it apart of the regular act of spiritual discipline. Still others do schedule it out. One of the Pastors that I read as I studied for this sermon plans out a year in advance his time of prayer and fasting making sure to put it on his schedule and then doing everything in his power to protect it from getting scheduled over. If you have never fasted before there is no time like the present. Close with Matthew 6:17–18 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Lord may you reward us for being dependent on you, for seeking your will, and for humbling ourselves before you in fasting and prayer.