FASTING: A Path to Spiritual Growth

Watch the message here.

Turn to Matthew 6 

This week, we come to the last of the three pious practices that Jesus speaks about. And it is my favorite, just as I am sure it is the favorite of every person sitting here. You tell can just by looking at that is my favorite. Fasting. Fasting: going without food, sometimes without water. As church history has gone on, we have described different kinds of fasts and we will touch on those as well. Biblical fasting was always going without food. 

These three spiritual disciplines, these pious practices, represent three different aspects of discipleship

Generosity. Do I love others? I am willing to give and help? 

Prayer. Do I love God? Am I spending time in relationship with him?

Fasting. Do I love myself?

The first two seem pretty obvious, but fasting less so. How does fasting, denying myself food, show love for myself? 

It shows I recognize the importance for me to submit to God. I will let God define good and bad in my life, even if it doesn’t make sense. When is going without food good?  My life is better if I can sacrifice all thoughts and desires to God and live a life acceptable to Him. That is my best life! I show love to myself by living my best life as defined by God!

Fasting also connects the physical and spiritual aspects of my life. 

Our spiritual is expressed in our physical. What we do with our bodies matters.

This is why we raise our hands or close our eyes when we pray. This is why, throughout history, kneeling in prayer, even laying on the floor facedown in prayer, had been practiced. That posture reminds us of how far the gap is between us and God. Through our prayers, we reach to Him and He comes down to us. He lifts us to a seat of honor as his sons. 

What we do with our bodies matters. This is why Jesus talks about fasting, sexual purity, cutting off hands, what we say, what we do with our money. Everything we do is an opportunity to become more like Jesus.

6:16–18 Fasting 

16“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 

17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 

18that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

We are embodied beings. Our bodies matter! Throughout history, there have been groups that have said anything physical is bad. Focus on just the spiritual. Before Christ,  Epicrueanism was philosophy where pleasure was considered the highest good and it defined this as an absence from fear and pain, from discomfort. Sound familiar? Do we hear echoes of that in our culture today? In the early church, that was a group called the Gnostics who argued anything physical was evil. Focus just on the spiritual. Sound familiar? Do we hear people saying all paths lead to God, just be spiritually minded.  

Think about the fight in culture today. Does your body matter? Is it ok to sleep with who you want? Take what drugs you want? Change your gender? Kill a child through abortion?  

All of these issues are part of humanity’s struggle about what we do with our bodies. My body, my choice. That is absolutely true. Because of God’s great love for you, He has given you the ability to decide how you are going to use your body. Are you going to honor God, submit to his Wisdom, or are you going to define good and bad for yourself?

Turn to Ephesians 4

We recognize there is a war between the physical and the spiritual. We are struggling to stop doing evil and do good, become more like Christ.

Ephesians 4:17–24 (ESV)

17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 

18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 

19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (they are using their bodies in a bad way)

20But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 

21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, (this is sarcasm. Paul taught them!) as the truth is in Jesus, 

22to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 

23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 

24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Fasting is a tool we use to bring our bodies into submission to God, to put off our old self and put on the new self. When practiced regularly, it helps fortify our will to resist temptation, to pass the test, and to image God well. Just like we discussed with prayer, it takes practice to get good at fasting.

It can also sharpen our focus on a specific issue. It helps us push through the noise of our embodied world to sharpen our spiritual communication, our prayer, with God.

It also “a way of honoring God or as part of a period of meditation and prayer.” 

God only commanded it one time, on the day of atonement.  The Day of Atonement was like a reset button for that nation where everything was made clean again.

The day of atonement was part of the liturgical calendar of the Jewish nation. Liturgy is how you do religion, how you do church. It’s a public act. Think about the role of the nation of Israel. They were to be a nation of priests who were to teach the world about Yahweh. Yahweh established a calendar because part of our bodies is time. How we view it and how we use it.

One of the ways we can determine our priorities is by assessing how we spend our time.  Think  about your week. How do you determine what you are going to do each day? For most of us, work is the first priority. We need to survive and that requires money which requires work! 

Then what? Relaxation so you can be rested for the next day of work? Extremely important. Time with family or friends? Time with God? Time for just some good old-fashioned fun and enjoyment? All of these things are important!

A calendar sets a rhythm to our lives. It helps us be intentional with our time. Instead of getting lost in the monotony of the day after day rat race, we bring our heads up and look around. Is this where I want to be? Is this what I want to be doing?

The Jews had 7 festivals. If that number seems significant, it is! 7 is regularly used in the Bible to indicate something is holy. This might seem strange, but we used numbers in the same way.

10! 13. What do you think of that? 800 number? 666?

We use numbers to convey meaning all the time, but someone not familiar with our culture would need them explained. The same is true in the Bible!

7 feasts to remind the people of God that they have a holy calling. They are dependent on Yahweh. He is their king.

This concept of a calendar, a rhythm reminding us of our relationship with God and our role in the world, was so important to Christians that they adopted it and developed a Christian liturgical calendar. How complicated it is depends on your denomination.

Every denomination has two big days in its calendar. What are they? Christmas and Easter. The birth of our savior and His resurrection. 

One of the things we have begun here at ReDiscover is incorporating a Christian liturgical calendar. If you come from a background that does not use one, it seems strange. Yet most Christians throughout history and most Christians in the world today use one. 

This is why we have colors on our table up front. Green is an “ordinary” Sunday. Nothing special. Yet green represents life and growth. God is the source of all life, including us being alive to God and dead to sin. The growth is the idea of physical growth such as plants and animals for food as well as spiritual growth as we become more like Jesus. Both are needed to be alive in Christ!

Let that sink in for a minute. On an ordinary, regular Sunday we celebrate the life that we have in Jesus and that we are growing, and becoming like Jesus. That’s amazing! That is worthy of celebration! 

We celebrated Advent, a time when we prepared our hearts for the arrival of King Jesus as a baby. It is marked by purple, the color of royalty. The color also symbolizes humility. The king of the universe stepped off His throne and became a baby, fully dependent on others to live. Needing to have his bottom wiped, dealing with runny noses, and the joys of puberty. 

We will celebrate Lent, a time of preparation as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our king at Easter. It is again marked by purple, representing his humble royalty as he set his eyes on the cross to die for you and for me.

But the calendar doesn’t end there, it continues to Easter and we cloth the table in white. White represents resurrection and the glory of God. 

This Calendar and the colors that go along with them helps us set sign posts in our year to remember the incredible story of God, how he created us and then saved us from ourselves, from our sin, our own bad choices. We need these reminders because of humanity’s amazing ability to get used to anything. In one day, you can travel thousands of miles by flying! Why does it cost so much? You have access to almost all human knowledge in the palm of your hand. Why doesn’t it load faster? The creator of the universe loves you so much that he died for you. Why doesn’t he help me more?

We need regular reminders to help us keep perspective. Fasting is a reminder.

Food is important. Feasting and fasting 

While feasting was often a public display of wealth and success, fasting was a display of humility and grief (Pollock, “Feasts, Funerals and Fast Food,” 21–22). 

Jewish feasts, but day of atonement. Nationa so was dealt with. Serious. Sorrowful. 

Apart from the Day of Atonement, fasting is absent from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible,  but appears throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Fasting is frequently performed along with other practices of mourning, lamentation, or penitence, and it often is conjoined with prayer. At times, fasting functions as a preventative measure prior to engaging in dangerous activity, such as a journey or battle.

In the Old Testament, people often tear their clothes and dress in sackcloth and ashes as they fast (e.g., 2 Sam 1:11–12;12:17-23, Dan 6:18, 9:3; Esth 4:3). Such activities mark the participants as being in a lowly state and indicate weakness; fasting is a means of physically lowering oneself.

Jesus was humble and grieved by our sin. It helps us put off the old self, and put on the new self, to have the mind of Christ

As we move into Christianity, we see some different practice.

Accompanied important decisions. 

Acts 13.3 fasting and praying before missionaries were sent

Acts 14.23 elders were appointed with prayer and fasting to discern God’s will.

In the early church, many Christians were instructed to fast twice a week (Didache)

During revivals like the Weslyan revival in England, the Great Awakening here in America, and many others, fasting occurred, often twice a week.

Great movements of the Holy Spirit are often accompanied by fasting. 

The goal in this form of fasting was to master one’s passions, prevent sin, and purify the soul.

But, because we are prideful, sinful humans, there is a danger. We fast so others see how devoted to God we are. That is sin.

Remember the word Hypocrite. An Actor. Pretending to do something even though our heart does not line up. Doing it so others praise them. Discussed before. 

Jewish fasting required abstinence not only from food but also from other pleasures, which would include the usual practice of anointing one’s head with oil to prevent dry skin; avoiding all these practices made fasting obvious. You don’t look good this morning. No makueup. No combed hair. You must be fasting. 

Do not draw attention to it to receive praise. If you want the praise, look normal when you are fasting. Change how you do it.

1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV) provides an important detail about Paul’s encouragement to others to imitate him.

1Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 

Only you can know if you are being seen for the right reasons. Encouragement for others or praise from others?

Foster parent. When people learn of it, they compliment me! It feels good! If I am being honest, Sometimes, I share because I want the compliment. That’s a sin! That makes me a hypocrite like Jesus is describing here. Sometimes, I share because one of my foster children is misbehaving. I want people to know I did not raise them. That’s pride. That’s sin!

Sometimes I share so I can talk about Jesus. Jesus loves me, so I keep loving others. That’s not a sin! God and I are the only ones who know which one it really is in the moment. 

When we give, pray, and fast, it is the same way. Only you and God know why you do it. For God’s glory or to be praised by others?

Or are you doing it to try and bargain with God? God, I’ll fast if you will come through for me. I need this promotion. I need healing. I need. I want. That’s not bringing your body into submission to God. That you trying to bring God into submission to your wants.

Bring to God your needs. Bring to Him your wants. Fast to help focus your spiritual radar. God, is what I want, what I think I need, good for me? What do you want for me? Pray like Jesus, Not my will, but yours be done.

If fasting has such great value, Why did the church stop fasting? Wht did our attitude change towards it? In many places, and in many times, the church did not stop. In America today, we have mostly stopped. We are not desperate. We’ve seen this pattern throughout church history. When Constantine became a Christian emperor and persecution stopped, the church stopped fasting in the west. Later, the church commanded it because they recognized its value and saw the commands Scripture. Well, if the Catholics command it, good Protestants reject it!  We were more concerned to be different, to be right, than desperate for God to restore the church.

There has been this continual shift about fasting, but it always appears when people are desperate for God to do something. 

We know it is important, and we want to do it, but it's hard. Can we come up with a “better” way to fast? An easier way to fast? You hear about the Daniel fast, fasting from certain foods. During Lent, Catholics do a fish fry. It used to be they required you to fast on Friday during Lent, but for several reasons, it was decided it was ok to eat fish. A social media fast. A sugar fast.

None of these are bad. But it’s like saying I’m going to start a healthy lifestyle by eating one less twinkie a day. That’s a step. How many twinkies are you still eating? What do your meals look like? What about exercise? Any attempt to grow is good, but do not use a small step as an excuse to not take a big step. We want the big step, but it’s hard. Do I really want it and the sacrifice it requires? I think I’m ok with a little sacrifice, a little change, a little step. That’s good enough. Right?

How desperate are we for God’s kingdom to come?

I hate fasting. I’m overweight. I’m fat. I really like food. This is the hardest spiritual discipline for me to practice. My comfort outweighs my desperation for God to do something. I have to be obedient to meet this fasting expectation. I’ll commit to fasting and forget the morning I’m supposed to start. I’ll eat breakfast, then remember, and say, oh well. Guess I’ll try again later. Guess when later comes? 

Everyone struggles with spiritual disciplines. Just like with prayer and generosity, we want to practice and develop our fasting muscles so that, when we are desperate, when we are confused, when we are in need, it is our normal response. We are not trying to figure out how to fast while we are in crisis.

Do not let your shame or your pride get in your way. I was convicted while writing this. I set an alarm on my phone every Thursday morning “Fast today”. It’s set to go off before I eat breakfast, providing me with a little mental help. Your elders pray every Thursday at 11:30. I’m asking them to check in with me on my weekly fasting. We are members of one body. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. My wife is much better at fasting than I am. We are supposed to help one another!

Don’t practice alone.

There is a wonderful passage about fasting in Isaiah 58. I am going to read it out of the Message because it does a great job of capturing the emotion of the passage. 

Isaiah 58:1–14 (MSG)

1“Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! 

2They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people— law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ and love having me on their side. 

3But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’ “Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. 

4You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. 

5Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, GOD, would like? 

6“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. 

7What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. 

8Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The GOD of glory will secure your passage. 

9Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, 

10If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. 

11I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. 

12You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. 

13“If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, GOD’s holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there— 

14Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.” Yes! GOD says so!

Isaiah 58:1–14 (ESV)

1“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 

2Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 

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. 

4Behold, 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. 

5Is 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? 

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? 

7Is 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? 

8Then 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. 

9Then 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, 

10if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 

11And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 

12And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. 

13“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 

14then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”