Just a few years in the past as I used to be exploring non secular disciplines, I discovered myself shocked at how typically fasting got here up. Fasting wasn’t one thing I heard a lot talked about within the church buildings and communities I’d been part of. Nevertheless it saved developing. In studying the prophets and the Gospels, it appeared that fasting was one thing God anticipated of his individuals. Although I’ve but to make fasting a daily apply, it’s a self-discipline I’ve felt invited into, tried to implement, and stay interested in.
As Christians, what are we to make of fasting? Is it one thing we must always incorporate together with our occasions of biblical meditation and prayer? What are the non secular advantages of fasting? And, if we determine to quick, how would possibly we start?
What’s fasting?
A fast web search on fasting produces a myriad of health-related outcomes, with intermittent fasting rating on the high. The priority right here is on the bodily advantages of fasting, similar to weight reduction. In case you alter your search to “non secular fasting” or “non secular fasting,” you’ll discover non secular fasting is much less involved with the well being of the physique than that of the soul. Additionally, you will discover that Christianity shouldn’t be the one faith to apply fasting, so we have to modify our query: What’s Christian fasting?
We’ll get to that later. For now, in its easiest type, fasting is the act of abstaining, or as one medical journal phrases it “the science of going with out.”
This abstention is mostly from meals, however fasting can embody different issues as nicely.
Adele Calhoun writes in her Non secular Disciplines Handbook:
Fasting is a chance to put down an urge for food—an urge for food for meals, for media, for buying. This act of self-denial might not appear big—it’s only a meal or a visit to the mall—nevertheless it brings us nose to nose with the starvation on the core of our being. Fasting exposes how we attempt to hold empty starvation at bay and achieve a way of well-being by devouring creature comforts. By way of self-denial we start to acknowledge what controls us. Our small denials of the self present us simply how little style we even have for sacrifice or time with God.
What fasting shouldn’t be
As a result of fasting from meals has an apparent bodily element to it, we’re to watch out about our method. It is very important keep in mind what fasting shouldn’t be. Fasting shouldn’t be:
- a weight loss plan to enhance well being
- a program to drop a few pounds
- a method to absolve ourselves of the guilt of sin(s)
- a option to punish or maltreat the physique
- a starvation strike to make a press release
- an indication of your holiness to others
- a method to earn God’s favor
This is applicable whether or not fasting from meals or issues apart from meals.
As a last level, you will need to keep in mind that fasting doesn’t apply to issues we must always keep away from always. For instance, we’re exhorted to abstain from sin all the time. Fasting is a short lived train; we must always (no less than attempt to) abstain from sin and evil on a everlasting foundation; subsequently, we don’t “quick” from sin. All the pieces value fasting from is, like food and drinks, good in itself. What’s extra, we don’t need to be sinning with this stuff—for instance, by committing gluttony—with the intention to quick from them. We will have a totally wholesome relationship with food and drinks and nonetheless select to set them apart for a quick. Once we quick, we aren’t setting apart one thing evil for one thing good; slightly, we’re setting apart a lesser good for a larger good.
As we’ll focus on later, there are lots of differing kinds and methods to quick. There’s not a technique or a prescribed size of time. It’s a matter of each self-discipline and discernment, taken up by a person or a group.
Is fasting thought-about a non secular self-discipline?
There are lots of methods we might be shaped spiritually, each deliberately and unintentionally. The non secular disciplines supply intentional methods we will pursue formation. They’re practices that may assist us develop individually and corporately, in inside and exterior methods. They’re workout routines that additional our non secular progress and our relational progress.
Calhoun writes:
From its starting the church linked the need for extra of God to intentional practices, relationships and experiences that gave individuals area of their lives to “hold firm” with Jesus. These intentional practices, relationships and experiences we all know as non secular disciplines.
As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “Don’t be conformed to this world, however be remodeled by the renewal of your thoughts, that by testing it’s possible you’ll discern what’s the will of God, what is nice and acceptable and excellent” (Rom 12:2). Non secular disciplines, similar to fasting, might be useful instruments that the Holy Spirit makes use of in our lives for our transformation and renewal.
Nevertheless, non secular disciplines aren’t instruments we will wield to pressure God, ourselves, or others to do what we are going to after we will, to make ourselves change, or persuade God that we deserve a reward. In Calhoun’s phrases: “Non secular practices don’t give us ‘non secular brownie factors’ or assist us ‘work the system’ for a passing grade from God. They merely put us in a spot the place we will start to note God and reply to his phrase to us,” and, “Our needs don’t obligate the holy One. God is free to come back to us in non secular disciplines as he wills, not as we demand.”
What does the Bible say about fasting?
The Lexham Bible Dictionary defines fasting as “a ritual of abstaining from meals and/or drink for a predetermined interval” and notes that it was “practiced within the Bible primarily as a method of mourning” and sometimes “in response to struggling or catastrophe, at the side of different mourning rituals” within the Previous Testomony.
The Factbook [Logos > Tools > Factbook] within the free Logos Bible app for cell, internet, and desktop is a good instrument to make use of right here to discover fasting and what the Bible tells us. The Factbook pulls collectively the customs, biblical senses, key Bible passages, and different sources in a single handy location.
Within the New Testomony, we discover extra examples of fasting. Jesus fasts for forty days and nights previous to starting his public ministry (see Matt 4, Mark 1, Luke 4). Within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s instructing on fasting follows that of prayer and forgiveness. Simply as he says “whenever you pray,” he says “whenever you quick,” implying that that is one thing that was present apply in addition to anticipated of those that observe him:
And whenever you quick, don’t look gloomy just like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting could also be seen by others. Actually, I say to you, they’ve acquired their reward. However whenever you quick, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting will not be seen by others however by your Father who’s in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matt 6:16–18)
Whereas Jesus’s instructing didn’t cast off fasting, Jesus’s disciples appear to have modified their common Jewish fasting practices in observance of Christ’s earthly presence with them. Mark information an episode the place each Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist had been engaged in fasting, but Jesus and his disciples weren’t. When questioned why his disciples didn’t quick, whereas John’s disciples and the Pharisees’s disciples did, Jesus responded: “Can the marriage company quick whereas the bridegroom is with them? So long as they’ve the bridegroom with them, they can not quick. The times will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, after which they’ll quick in that day” (Mark 2:18–20). Jesus shouldn’t be saying the standard Jewish fasting practices right here had been flawed, however he’s saying one thing about himself: particularly, that he’s one better than both John or the Pharisees. He’s the Bridegroom; subsequently, a feast is so as, not a quick.
After Jesus ascended, we discover mentions in Acts of his followers fasting. Fasting is there talked about as practiced at the side of prayer (Acts 10:30), worship (Acts 13:2), and when appointing and equipping individuals for service to the Lord: “And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they dedicated them to the Lord in whom that they had believed” (Acts 14:23). So the disciples abstained from fasting whereas Jesus was with them, they usually took up the apply once more when he was now not with them.
For an exploration of the Hebrew and Greek usages of fasting, try the Bible Phrase Research information in Logos (Logos > Guides > Bible Phrase Research).
Extra verses about fasting
As we noticed above, the Bible speaks of fasting in particular person and communal contexts, for petition and repentance and mourning, for worship and anointing to service. Listed here are a couple of extra examples:
“Then all of the individuals of Israel, the entire military, went up and got here to Bethel and wept. They sat there earlier than the Lord and fasted that day till night, and provided burnt choices and peace choices earlier than the Lord.”
—Judges 20:26
“Then Samuel stated, ‘Collect all Israel at Mizpah, and I’ll pray to the Lord for you.’ In order that they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out earlier than the Lord and fasted on that day and stated there, ‘We have now sinned towards the Lord.’”
—1 Samuel 7:5–6
“David subsequently sought God on behalf of the kid. And David fasted and went in and lay all night time on the bottom.”
—2 Samuel 12:16
“All of the valiant males arose and took away the physique of Saul and the our bodies of his sons, and introduced them to Jabesh. And their buried their bones beneath the oak of Jabesh and fasted seven days.”
—1 Chronicles 10:12
“Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to hunt the Lord, and proclaimed a quick all through all Judah.”
—2 Chronicles 20:3
“Then I [Ezra] proclaimed a quick there, on the river Ahava, that we would humble ourselves earlier than our God, to hunt from him a secure journey for ourselves, our kids, and all our items. … So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.”
—Ezra 8:21, 23
“And in each province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was nice mourning among the many Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and plenty of of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.”
—Esther 4:3
“However I, after they had been sick—I wore sackcloth; I bothered myself with fasting; I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.”
—Psalm 35:13
“Isn’t this the quick that I select: to free the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to interrupt each yoke?”
—Isaiah 58:6
“So you’re to go, and on a day of fasting within the listening to of all of the individuals within the Lord’s home you shall learn the phrases of the Lord from the scroll that you’ve got written at my dictation. You shall learn them additionally within the listening to of all the lads of Judah who come out of their cities.”
—Jeremiah 36:6
“Consecrate a quick; name a solemn meeting. Collect the elders and all of the inhabitants of the land to the home of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.”
—Joel 1:14
“Then the disciples got here to Jesus privately and stated, ‘Why may we not forged it [the demon] out?’ He stated to them, ‘Due to your little religion. … However this type by no means comes out besides by prayer and fasting.’”
—Matthew 17: 19–21
“And there was a prophetess, Anna. … She didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night time and day.”
—Luke 2:36–37
Now that we’ve checked out what fasting is and what the Bible says about it, let’s discover why we would quick.
Why ought to I quick?
Notice that in Jesus’s instructing, he doesn’t say, “should you quick” however “when.” David laments, “once I wept and humbled my soul with fasting” (Ps 69:10). Many individuals within the Bible and all through church historical past have fasted and written about its deserves: David, Esther, Daniel, Anna, Jesus, and the apostles, simply to call a couple of. From Augustine’s treatise “On the Usefulness of Fasting” to Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica to John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Faith, fasting has been thought-about a part of the Christian stroll and a standard apply.
Aquinas attributes this to Augustine: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the thoughts, topics one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the guts contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the hearth of lust, kindles the true mild of chastity.”
If even one in every of these attributes had been the results of fasting, it will be a worthwhile apply for us to select up.
Calvin, in his Institutes, echoes the aim of fasting when he writes, “Holy and lawful fasting has three targets. We use it both to weaken and subdue the flesh that it might not act wantonly, or that we could also be higher ready for prayers and holy meditations, or that it might be an affidavit of our self-abasement earlier than God after we want to confess our guilt earlier than him.”
The purpose, for Calvin and others, shouldn’t be the quick itself however what it opens us as much as, similar to a spirit that’s “extra keen and unencumbered for prayer.”
As a result of God is anxious with all of us—coronary heart, thoughts, soul, and physique (Rom 12:1)—fasting could be a useful apply for our consciousness of ourselves, our physicality and weaknesses, of the place we’re tempted, and of what and who we place our belief in. In creating such consciousness, our objective is to not castigate ourselves however to contemplate the depths of our want for God. Fasting, then, is an act of reliance and belief—we surrender or put aside one thing for a interval, and we ask God for his sustenance, as Jesus did when he was within the wilderness or when he went away to be by himself together with his Father. Any profit we obtain from fasting is a present from God, decided by him. Our objective in fasting, or in some other non secular self-discipline, is rarely to earn rewards or favor.
Calhoun cautions us, “We miss the purpose and endanger our souls after we consider non secular disciplines as ends in themselves. … They’re by no means the ‘be all and finish all’ of discipleship. The ‘be all and finish all’ is a loving belief of and obedience to the God who’s inside us but past us and our best efforts.”
In his basic work, Celebration of Self-discipline: The Path to Non secular Development, Richard Foster acknowledged the challenges fasting presents to us when he wrote, “maybe in our prosperous society fasting includes a bigger sacrifice than the giving of cash.”
What does it appear like to enact this self-denial? Let’s take a look at some examples of methods to quick.
How do I begin fasting?
For many who are new to the self-discipline of fasting, there are useful guides accessible, similar to in Celebration of Self-discipline and the Non secular Disciplines Handbook. We’ll spotlight a couple of forms of fasting, in addition to some sources you would possibly discover.
“Regular” fasting
The normal quick is a time period after we go with none meals. Foster writes, “In Scripture the conventional technique of fasting includes abstaining from all meals, stable or liquid, however not from water. Within the forty-day quick of Jesus, we’re advised that ‘he ate nothing’ and that towards the tip of the quick ‘he was hungry’ and Devil tempted him to eat, indicating that the abstaining was from meals however not from water (Luke 4:2). From a bodily standpoint, that is what’s normally concerned in a quick.”
Partial fasting
Foster goes on to debate an instance of a partial quick:
Typically what could possibly be thought-about a partial quick is described; that’s, there’s a restriction of weight loss plan however not complete abstention. Though the conventional quick gave the impression to be the customized of the prophet Daniel, there was a three-week interval during which he declares, ‘I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself in any respect’ (Dan. 10:3).”
Absolute fasting
Foster additionally supplies examples from the Bible of absolute fasting, which is abstaining from each meals and water utterly. This kind of fasting requires a lot discernment earlier than getting into into it. As Foster says,
[This type of fast] seems to be a determined measure to fulfill a dire emergency. Upon studying that execution awaited herself and her individuals, Esther instructed Mordecai, “Go, collect all of the Jews … and maintain a quick on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for 3 days, night time or day. I and my maids will even quick as you do” (Esther 4:16). Paul engaged in a three-day absolute quick following his encounter with the residing Christ (Acts 9:9). Because the human physique can’t go with out water for much longer than three days, each Moses and Elijah engaged in what have to be thought-about supernatural absolute fasts of forty days (Deut. 9:9, I Kings 19:8). It have to be underscored that absolutely the quick is the exception and may by no means be engaged in except one has a really clear command from God, after which for not more than three days.
Fasting for inexperienced persons
“As with all of the Disciplines, a development must be noticed; it’s sensible to be taught to stroll nicely earlier than we attempt to run,” says Foster.
You would possibly begin with fasting from one meal throughout a twenty-four hour interval and step by step work as much as longer durations. For instance, you would possibly eat breakfast and dinner, however not lunch. After making an attempt that, you would possibly transfer to fasting from two meals throughout a twenty-four hour interval. After attempting this as soon as per week for a couple of weeks, you would possibly end up able to strive a standard quick the place you go with out meals for 24 hours.
Foster shares, “At first you’ll be fascinated with the bodily elements of your expertise, however an important factor to observe is the internal angle of the guts. Outwardly you’ll be performing the common duties of your day, however inwardly you’ll be in prayer and adoration, track, and worship.”
He advises throughout your regular quick to “Drink solely water however use wholesome quantities of it. … You’ll most likely really feel some starvation pangs or discomfort earlier than the time is up. That isn’t actual starvation; your abdomen has been educated by years of conditioning to provide indicators of starvation at sure hours. … You’re to be the grasp of your abdomen, not its slave. If [your schedule permits it], dedicate the time you’d usually use consuming to meditation and prayer.”
One other sensible reminder comes from Calhoun, “Don’t break your quick with an enormous meal. Eat small parts of meals. The longer the quick, the extra it is advisable to break the quick gently.”
Another choice may be to hitch in a group apply, similar to Lent, when you could have the encouragement of others partaking in the identical practices and the place fasting is joined by the traditions of prayer and almsgiving. Lent is a time within the church calendar put aside for repentance and preparation, main as much as Easter. All through Lent are days of standard fasting (no meals) and partial fasting (no meat). Moreover, some tackle the apply of giving one thing up or taking one thing on throughout the season.
At different occasions unrelated to the church calendar, communities would possibly interact in a quick when they’re searching for to listen to from God a couple of explicit matter. They could put aside someday per week the place the group agrees to quick and spend time in prayer collectively.
Fasting and justice
God has sturdy phrases for individuals who carry out outward acts however don’t dwell in response to his Phrase. In Isaiah 58, we discover his response to those that quick outwardly however aren’t residing rightly, those that are oppressing others. They ask God to acknowledge their fasting, however they’re considering not of him or others however of themselves. God responds:
Isn’t this the quick that I select:
to free the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke
to let the oppressed go free,
and to interrupt each yoke?
Is it to not share your bread with the hungry
and convey the homeless poor into your own home;
whenever you see the bare, to cowl him,
and to not conceal your self from your personal flesh?
God says if his individuals apply this sort of quick, that he’ll reply:
Then you definitely shall name, and the Lord will reply;
you shall cry, and he’ll say, “Right here I’m.”
To review this passage extra, you would possibly use the Fundamental Bible Research workflow in Logos (Logos > Guides > Workflows > Fundamental Bible Research).
Fasting and prayer
Many examples within the Bible hyperlink fasting and prayer. Nehemiah says, “I continued fasting and praying earlier than the God of heaven” (Neh 1:4). Anna the prophetess was described as “worshiping with fasting and prayer night time and day” (Luke 2:37). Earlier than Barnabus and Saul started their missionary journey, different prophets and lecturers fasted and prayed earlier than laying their arms on them and sending them off (Acts 13:3).
As we’ve been analyzing, fasting shouldn’t be about abstaining for the sake of abstaining. It’s a self-discipline for the sake of drawing nearer to God and his methods. It’s a apply to assist us filter out distractions, spotlight our dependencies, and switch us in direction of Jesus. It’s a apply, as Calvin wrote, that may assist us be “unencumbered for prayer.”
Not solely is fasting a self-discipline that may help us in creating area for prayer, it’s a apply that actually can’t be achieved aside from prayer. It isn’t one thing we obtain out of our personal energy, however within the Spirit.
What is going on after we quick
As Foster explains it,
Though the bodily elements of fasting intrigue us, we should always remember that the main work of scriptural fasting is within the realm of the spirit. What goes on spiritually is far more necessary than what is going on bodily. You can be partaking in non secular warfare that may necessitate utilizing all of the weapons of Ephesians 6. One of the crucial vital durations spiritually is on the finish of the quick when we have now a pure tendency to calm down. However I don’t need to go away the impression that every one fasting is a heavy non secular battle—I’ve not discovered it so. It’s also “…righteousness and peace and pleasure within the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
Fasting from issues apart from meals
It might be that for well being or different causes, fasting from meals shouldn’t be an possibility for you. Or, it might be that the invitation for you falls in one other space of your life. As Calhoun writes, “Fasting reminds us that we care about ‘soul’ issues.”
Given the variety of distractions accessible to us in our present age, it has turn into a apply for individuals wishing to reorient themselves to the life the Holy Spirit presents to us by fasting from expertise, social media, or different types of leisure. They could decide to someday per week the place they don’t verify their social media and e-mail accounts. For some individuals, it may be on-line buying. For others, it may be sure forms of meals or drink.
There’s nothing inherently evil in this stuff, however a very good query to ask is: What’s taking my consideration from God? Once we can entry information, leisure, and media on the contact of a button, what are we turning to after we are unsettled or when we have now a while to ourselves? When we have now fixed streams of media coming at us and vying for our consideration, are we responding with “doomscrolling” or trusting in God? Fasting might help us study the place our belief actually lies. Fasting can remind us to show to prayer and never one other display.
Books on fasting and praying
It might be that you’re being referred to as to the non secular self-discipline of fasting or one other one of many non secular disciplines. In case you are unsure the place to start out, Calhoun presents a Non secular Development Planner within the Non secular Disciplines Handbook that’s designed that can assist you determine the place your longings for extra of God would possibly line up with a particular apply, like fasting.
However as Calhoun discusses about her personal guide, it’s useful to keep in mind that no useful resource will “make you disciplined, repair your non secular life or pressure one thing to occur in your soul. A guide can by no means make God seem on demand.”
Nevertheless, books might be nice sources for us! Plenty of books that could be useful to discover are:
An invite to let go
Whereas we have now a protracted custom of fasting and plenty of examples from the saints who got here earlier than us, it’s useful to keep in mind that we aren’t residing beneath a regulation of formality and requirement. As Calvin places it, we aren’t to “bind consciences with lethal chains.”
And, as Foster reminds us, “Our freedom within the gospel … doesn’t imply license; it means alternative” and “to make use of good issues to our personal ends is all the time the signal of false faith.”
Fasting shouldn’t be a regulation for us to take up. Fasting is an invite to us to let go of these issues we may be greedy only a bit too tightly.
Fasting can also be not one thing achieved to convey consideration to ourselves. Foster reminds us, “It ought to go with out saying that you need to observe Jesus’ counsel to chorus from calling consideration to what you’re doing. The one ones who ought to know you’re fasting are those that need to know. In case you name consideration to your fasting, individuals shall be impressed and, as Jesus stated, that shall be your reward. You, nonetheless, are fasting for much better and deeper rewards.”
