Fasting - Standing with the poor

Recap

Over that last few weeks we’ve spent time talking about fasting and it’s benefits in our walk with the Lord

Week One - Offering ourselves to Jesus

Week Two - Growing in Holiness

Week Three - Amplifying Our Prayers

This week we’ll move from how fasting helps us as individuals to how it helps bring aid and restoration to our communities.

Fasting since the beginning of the of NT church, has been a primary method for us to not only get in tune with God, but also to identify with the the poor and needy

Facts about our world in need

2 billion people live in poverty

700 million of those people live in extreme poverty living off of $2 a day.

40 million people in the US live in extreme poverty, most of whom are children

Meanwhile in the US, the average household throws away, on average, $1500 worth of food.

Could there be a practice of The Way that could aid in this problem of need and waste? Yes. Fasting.

This might be a new concept for some of you but fasting has long been paired with generosity in the Bible and the early church through the ages.

Isaiah 58:3–5 ESV

3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Here we see that there can be more to fasting than just serving to offer ourselves, overcome sin, or aid in prayer. There can be more to it.

Isaiah 58:6–7 ESV

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

In this passage fasting is instructed by the Lord to be a way to minister to the oppressed, hungry, and homeless. Then the Lord follows up this instruction with a promise.

Isaiah 58:8–9 ESV

8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

This particular reason for fasting is less about us personally and more about identifying with the “least of these” in our world.

"Break your bread for those who are hungry, said Isaiah, do not believe that fasting suffices.

Fasting chastises you, but it does not refresh the other. ... Do you wish your prayer to reach God?

Give it two wings, fasting and almsgiving."

-St. Augustine

His picture of fasting here is interesting. He says that if we want our prayers to truly make it up to heaven like it heaven then it must have two wings to fly most effectively, Fasting and “Almsgiving”

Almsgiving = Works of generosity

In scripture, generosity is as equally tied to fasting as prayer is. In the way that its hard to imagine fasting without pryer in the early church the very same would’ve been said about generosity and fasting. The two went hand in hand.

"Estimate the cost of the food you would have eaten on that day and give that amount to a widow or orphan or someone in need. Be humble in this way, that the one who receives something because of your humility may fill his soul and pray to the Lord for you."

The Shepard of Hermas

"Give to the hungry what you deny your own appetite."

—St. Gregory of Nyssa

"Let us fast in such a way that we lavish our lunches upon the poor, so that we may not store up in our purses what we intended to eat, but raiher in the stomachs of the poor."

—Caesarius of Arles

A critic of fasting may say that it’s insensitive to go without food as means for spiritual enlightenment when many people around the world don’t get the luxury to choose, but rather that is just their harsh reality. They also wouldn’t see it as spiritual enlightenment.

In regards to biblical fasting, however, this criticism falls short because, according to the scriptures, fasting and generosity toward the poor go hand in hand. It is a way to sympathize help relieve the suffering.

What many throughout church history have stated what is obvious in scripture which is - You can’t separate your relationship with God and you neighbor. They along with scripture found that fasting is a way to love God and love our neighbor at the same time.

When we fast in this way it helps us in 3 ways

1. Indentify with the poor.

The natural discomfort of hunger that comes with fasting helps us identify with the millions in the world that go without on a regular basis.

Families that do a “rice and beans” meal once a week.

As we fast, our stomach do a work on our hearts and our hearts begin to line up more with God’s heart

2. Share what we have.

What we give up can be used to resource and aid those in need. The money that we would save on a meal or groceries can be donated. Or the time we save can be given to volunteer. The wonderful thing about this is that we all have things that we can give up that can be turned into generosity. Even right now I’m sure you can think of things that you can go without than can in turn be transformed into generosity that can share the love of the Father. This is one of the greatest gifts of this type fasting.

In a world where it has become easier and, more likely, to rant and post about injustice than to actually do anything about, fasting and generosity gives a soul level solution that doesn’t just check a box, but helps us identify with the poor in our souls.

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

This can be as easy as taking the money that you would’ve spent on a meal and donate to Convoy of Hope or send it to some in your community that you know is in need.

3. Stand against evil and injustice

Fasting and whats commonly known as “hunger strikes” have long been used to fight against imbalances or misuses of powers and is a way of giving up of ones privileges to reject those who are abusive and stand with those who are in need. If a cause or situation arises where this may be acceptable, fasting is a powerful tool to fight abuses and stand with the needy.

More importantly, in a very spiritual sense, fasting is a kind of hunger strike against the evil principalities and powers that are at work in our world to hold this world captive and destroy it. Again, in order to fight against the powers of this world, we turn to prayer. And as we talked about multiple times prayer and fasting are a power combination.

Isaiah gives us a vision of fasting that stands with the needy, is generous with those in need, and fights the powers behind it all.

And we mustn’t forget Jesus vision for the church was to make a new kind of family. And i’m sure much like your own families, a top priority is that no one be in need.

Acts 4:34 ESV

34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold

Conclusion

FASTING CAN TRANSFORM OUR RELATIONSHIP

01 — to Jesus

02 — to our body

03 - to God (prayer)

04 - to the poor