Biblical Fasting
Brian Tolle

We need to liberate the Bible from cliche. Sometimes the Bible tends to get buried in an avalanche of cliche. When the Bible talks about eternal life, it means immortality attained in resurrection. 

But, how do we enter into this now?


We know in the Kingdom, that when all things wrap up, some things will be abolished forever (war, violence, lust, greed…). But some things will last (faith, love, hope) forever. If you are living this kind of life, continued in the resurrection, you are practicing resurrection!

We want to be a community of people who practice resurrection! For that to happen we must be properly formed. We don’t just need to believe the right things, we also must practice them. Being a Christian is not just sitting around believing things. You have to have the proper foundation in order to live it out, but the objective is always to live it out. Jesus says to go and make disciples, not believers. So how do we do this? We need practices, or better known as Spiritual Disciplines (these are not the rules).

We do, however, have two rules in Christianity:
1.) Love God
2.) Love your neighbor

To fulfill these commands you have to be properly formed in Christ-like character. Or you just end up loving yourself and using and manipulating those around you.

The purpose of spiritual disciplines is the purpose of formation.

We do things to be transformed into the image of Jesus. The spiritual disciplines are not new or modern. They are as ancient as the Christian life itself. 

Over 2,000 years of doing these things, the Church has gained a wisdom about the disciplines. What is new, however, is the tendency to abandon these things as a Christian practice. But, we are invited into a tradition that has been used by the Holy Spirit to form a Christian people.

We do not do these things to get things from God. Prayer and fasting are linked together. But we don’t do these things to get God to do things for us. That can be very manipulative. Here is a great definition of fasting from Scot McKnight's book, Fasting:

Fasting: is a response to a serious, or grievous, sacred moment.

"People fasted in the Bible in response to some grievous event in life - like death or the realization of sin or when the nation was threatened. Does it bring results? Yes. But that’s not the point of fasting. Those who fasted in response to grievous sacred moments frequently - but not always - received results, like answered prayer. But focusing on the results causes us to misunderstand fasting entirely." - Scot McKnight

Fasting is not a manipulative tool that guarantees results.

Acts 13:1-3 (emphasis added)
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

This is in Syria. This is the church that sends out Paul. He returns there a lot. It’s Paul’s home-church. This is Paul’s first missionary journey. And what did they do? They fasted! They voluntarily did not eat certain things. A restriction of food for a spiritual purpose. It was not dietary. 

Fasting is choosing not to indulge in food. The normal way to fast biblically is from sunup to sundown (12 hours) or sometimes, even 24 hours. 

Some today use the word fast for not watching TV, abstaining from desserts, or not watching sports. Each of these can be a good discipline for specific individuals, but they are not fasting. Not in the biblical sense. Why? Because fasting in the Bible is about not eating and sometimes not drinking. To choose not to watch TV or not eat savory meats is not fasting - but abstinence. I think it’s important to know the difference.

When people tell us they are fasting - we should ask, “in response to what?” instead of “what do you hope to get out of it?”

The early church developed its own way of fasting. Friday fasts and Easter fasts. This typically happened in the Spring, which in old English is where we get the word - Lent.

Fasting is a part of an energetic faith. We tend to joke about Lent by saying things like, “...what are you giving up?” as if you were going to give up anything! I wonder if this has caused us to be apathetic? Have we lost the energy for Spiritual Disciplines?

Some say things like fasting are a dead tradition. Well, truth be told, it’s a tradition that we’ve received. Maybe we need to resurrect it? Bring it back to life? The great characters of the Bible model fasting for us - Moses fasted, the prophets fasted, Jesus begins his ministry with a 40 day fast, he teaches us about fasting presuming we will fast, the apostles fast, the early church fasted.

The question is - how do we go about it? How should we do it? Do you desire to fast from food for spiritual purposes?

Here's something to remember: Christianity is a faith we inherit. Between the days of Jesus on earth and today, there’s 2,000 years of the Church passing along the witness so you can believe in Jesus. We have to be respectful of how this message of Jesus came into existence in the now so we can believe in it. The Church passed down a tradition I believe needs resurrecting and that I intend to participate in - The Friday Fast. 

Why Friday? Because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Sunday should be a weekly celebration of his resurrection. On Friday we remember weekly that Jesus was crucified. Think between 9am-3pm. That’s when Jesus hung on the cross. So the church wanted to commemorate that by fasting. Giving up food for a spiritual purpose. It is best to view it within the confines of the flesh vs. the spirit.

Paul talks about the flesh vs. the spirit. The flesh is like the beast inside of us that wants what it wants, when it wants it. Give it to me now! But we must learn to tame that beast. When you’re hungry, your body says, "feed me". But, what happens when you’re hungry and you say "no"? It doesn't make sense to our bodies.

We must train the flesh to be subordinate to the Spirit!

The practice of fasting at this point becomes second nature to us. Now the beast within, when you say you are fasting, says “yes sir” or “yes ma’am”!

This is how the spirit starts to take control of your life. This is why we fast. When the spirit is alive and our flesh obeys, things like lust, greed, sexual immorality, and so forth - don’t happen! Because the spirit says NO! and the flesh obeys.

Fasting humbles the soul. 

This is why Jesus critiques fasting motivated by pride. We don’t fast so we can tell everyone about it. Jesus says the Father doesn’t reward that. We should fast in secret which in turn expresses our humility. 

Our culture is a culture of consumerism. It’s the religion of America. Unfortunately, we are all guilty of this. We are trained and virtually brainwashed by advertising and commercials to remind us that we are, to some degree, consumers. Our merit and worth, we are told, is based on how much we own and consume. We believe this gives us definition in our life. But all of that is a lie! It’s idolatrous. It must be resisted!

A Friday fast is a form of prayerful resistance to the idolatrous culture of consumerism. It gives you a repetition in your life when you say - “today, I’m not going to be a consumer”.  

It’s formative for your spiritual growth! It’s not a rule or a law.

We need good traditions to form a Christian culture. The purpose of this is to learn and live the kind of lives that find continuation in the age to come! 

Amen.
BT

(The artwork is by Justyna Kopania)