- FAST
fast verb. Go without food [for God]. - 2. noun. A period of going without food [for God].
Whenever I talk to people about fasting, their knee-jerk reaction is “No food? No food? No FOOD? You’re outa your
This is why so many Christians are quick to redefine the word “fast.” Fr’instance the last several churches I’ve been a part of, have annually done a 21-day “Daniel fast,”
Fasting, actual fasting, is a hardcore Christian practice. The only things which go into our mouths are air and water. In an “absolute fast” you even skip the water. Now, we need food and water. If we don’t eat, we die. And that’s the point: Push this practice too far and we die—but God is more important than our lives. That’s the declaration we make when we fast: Our lives aren’t as important as God.
Why would we do such a thing? For the same reason Jesus did it, when he went to the desert
We reject our culture, which teaches us we should never deprive ourselves of anything. We recognize God, not food, is our source of life. Our minds get better attuned to God’s will. We hear him better, because our bodies physically feel our need for him. We detect spiritual things faster. We
Yeah, fasting does all that. That is, when we’re praying as well as fasting. If you’re fasting but not praying, it’s time wasted.
Don’t get me wrong. Other forms of self-deprivation have the same effects. Dieting for God, or going without certain beloved things and hobbies, because God’s more important than any of our desires, can also achieve the same things as fasting. Just not as quickly; not as intensely. The stakes simply aren’t as high. Fasting is hardcore, remember? Going without bacon, as hard as that might be for you personally, isn’t life-threatening. (In fact it’s better for your health.) But though a small thing, it’s still a sacrifice, and part of the proper mindset: “God is more important than my palate.”
But do we gotta?
Still, talking to people about depriving ourselves of anything will make us balk. And a quick search of the bible will show us God never commands anyone to fast. So they’ll immediately say, “Hey, God never commanded anyone to fast, so I don’t have to!”
Okay yes, there’s one time in which God appears to order people to fast, and Christians will refer to that verse and claim God did so command a fast. Well, not really. God was rebuking Israel for fasting for all the wrong reasons—to look pious, but not love their neighbors like God wants. Actual context of that passage:
Isaiah 58.3-10 The Message 3 “But 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.
4 You 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.
5 Do 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, G
OD , 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.
7 What 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.
8 Do this and the lights will turn on,- and your lives will turn around at once.
- Your righteousness will pave your way.
- The G
OD of glory will secure your passage. 9 Then 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,
10 If 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.”
Yep, the one time God instructs fasting, he’s actually telling people to obey his commands instead of practicing dead ritual in their place. God wants
Hey look, it’s Charles Stanley talking about fasting! In Touch Ministries.
So because we’re never commanded to literally fast, many don’t. When their churches call for a time of prayer and fasting, they might do the praying, but they’ll skip any of the self-deprivation. Or they’ll “fast” in as minor a way as they can. Hey, they tend to skip breakfast anyway, so there y’go: “I’ll fast breakfast.” Won’t even miss it.
(Well actually: If you commit yourself to going without breakfast during an actual fast period, you’re gonna discover yourself inexplicably so tempted to have breakfast most mornings. You think the devil’s gonna pass up this fun opportunity to mess with your head? Get you to feel rotten about yourself because you can’t achieve such a small thing for God? Oh, you bet it’ll try to get you to slip this one up. Bacon and doughnuts everywhere.)
Thing is, Jesus presumed we will fast. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said
In Jesus’s culture,
And
I know; you might object, “Fasting is voluntary, and what business does any church have in turning voluntary things into mandatory things?
I don’t blame you for not wanting to fast. It’s no fun, and I like food too. But when a church calls for a fast, it’s because the leadership is seeking God, and wants your help. If you’re not gonna help, go find a different church. One which doesn’t expect or want your help.
Nope, fasting isn’t mandatory. No good works are;
How to fast.
Our only rule about fasting? Jesus’s ordered us to not show off.
Matthew 6.16-18 The Message 16 “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint.17 If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face.18 God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.”
We need to avoid fasting in circumstances where our practice will be obvious.
So this means
Don’t fast on days, or during meals, when you’re typically expected to eat with others, like a business lunch, family brunch, birthday party, dinner date, wrap party, or just dining with friends. Don’t figure you’ll just drink water and enjoy their company. For no matter how much you try to draw attention away from it, you not eating is gonna stick out like a bright red zit on your nose.
The point of fasting is to forego calories and draw closer to God. So why’re you going to any of these social functions anyway? Pray. Visit family and friends once you’re done fasting.
That said, any other fasting guidelines I have to offer are based on the purpose of fasting: Prayer, and growing closer to God.
Certain churches don’t declare a fast for that reason. They do it because they want to discipline the congregation: They feel you’ve been sinning, or aren’t repentant enough, or need to otherwise feel bad. You’re horrible sinners; you need to suffer. That sort of thing. And that’s not at all what fasting is about. Never was. Not even in the Old Testament, when people fasted in repentance. Then as now, they wanted to hear God. If fasting is used as punishment, or to exert the leaders’ authority, that’s abuse, and that church is a cult. Get out of there.
The leaders of any church should know fasts are voluntary, and that sometimes people are gonna skip a certain fast. Sometimes for valid reasons: They have low blood sugar, or they need to take their medications with food, or there’s a wedding coming up, or it’s Christmas. If fasting is gonna violate your health or your conscience, they should know better than to press the issue. And you shouldn’t violate theirs either: If they want to fast twice a week, let them. All of you should encourage the right spirit behind fasting: Seek living religion, and its emphasis on an interactive relationship between God and us. Not the brainless ritual of dead religion.
“Partial fasts.”
Like I said, self-deprivation can be good, and there’s nothing wrong with doing it for God. But Christians insist on calling these acts of self-deprivation “fasts,” or “partial fasts.” They’re awfully popular among American Protestants.
We go without one category in our diets—meat, dairy, bread, dessert, what have you. Or we give up a meal, like breakfast, brunch, lunch, teatime, dinner, or late-night snack. (And then we overcompensate in our next meal, like Muslims during Ramadan.) We may give up some calories for God, but that’s more dumb luck than intention.
A very popular “partial fast,” the one my church regularly practices, is called the
But Christians don’t care about
But again: If we’re doing the self-depravation for God’s sake, if we’re praying and seeking him and listening to him, he’s usually gonna answer whether we’re full-on fasting, sticking to a “Daniel fast,” or even just giving up doughnuts for a week. They’re not necessarily gonna be scary-but-hopeful End Times visions. (In fact, if God instructs you to give up the doughnuts permanently, that might be even scarier.) But don’t be surprised when he tells you stuff.
Well. Various Christians wanna duplicate Daniel’s “fast,” but none of their Daniel-fast menus come from the bible. They’re all someone’s idea of a tougher-than-usual diet… one they can live with. ’Cause that’s how all “partial fasts” work. They’re fasts we can live with. They’re custom-designed by and for us. You can swap ’em for something harder, like an “Ezekiel fast” where you eat nothing but bean bread cooked over cow feces.
But no matter what we label it, self-deprivation isn’t a fast. It’s a diet. Our “meat fasts,” or “video game fasts,” or “coffee fasts,” or “Netflix fasts”—they’re attempts to sound more extreme or devout than we really are. To be blunt, calling something a fast when it’s not
