August 5, 2001

FASTING AS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

Matthew 9:14-17

"Then John's disciples came and asked him, 'How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'
Jesus answered, 'How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.'"

Allow me to paraphrase the question the disciples of John asked Jesus. Paraphrased, it would go something like this-why do we have to suffer while your disciples get to go to parties?

Jesus gave a three-part answer. First, He said that it was not the time for His disciples to fast. While He was with them was the time for them to rejoice. Second, He said that there would come a time when He would be taken from them. They would return to fasting at that time. Third, He said that the reason people fast would change. People fasted under the law to fulfill an obligation. They were commanded to fast. Fasting was a way of gaining credit with God. But in the age of the gospel fasting is not a requirement. It is a privilege. People will fast because they hunger to do draw closer to God.

My first experience with fasting was when I was in college. I practiced an absolute fast for twenty-four hours neither eating nor drinking anything. The day always came to an end with my stomach cramping and me in the bathroom throwing up. More recently, when I have fasted, I have allowed myself to drink water flavored with a fruit juice. This has lessened the cramping and has made the experience more bearable.

We live in an age of self-gratification. The idea of self-denial seems almost medieval to us. There is not a large outcry today for fasting. Many Christians have never attempted to fast and have never even thought of fasting as a spiritual discipline. So, why would anyone want to fast?

The answer has to do with our relationship with God. Salvation is a free gift. Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine say, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." Salvation is a free gift that God gives to all who will receive it. There is nothing we can do to deserve it or to be worthy of it. Salvation-the act of being put back into a right relationship with God-comes to us as a free and unmerited gift from God. Call out to God to have mercy upon you and receive His Son to be your Savior and you will be saved. It really is that simple, if you do it sincerely and with all your heart. This is the good news of the gospel.

But once we are put back into that right relationship with God, there grows in us a hunger to know God at a deeper level. This is where all of the spiritual disciplines come in. This is why we pray. It is why we study our Bible. It is why we worship. It is why we do acts of service. They are not done to earn salvation, but to aid us to move into a deeper relationship with God.

The person who becomes a Christian wants to live for God, but discovers quickly that it is not that simple. We have years of habits and practices and ways of thinking that do not make the transition from our lost state to our saved state with us. These habits are patterns of acting and thinking that keep us being who we have always been. We also live in a world set against God, so we receive no encouragement in becoming new people in Christ Jesus from the world around us. This is what the Apostle Paul was describing when he wrote the Galatians, "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" [Galatians 5:17].

Fasting is not about manipulating God or about getting Him to do what we want Him to do. God is God and He will never bend to our wills.

Fasting is valuable for several reasons-

1. Fasting attacks our pride. We learn how dependent we are on food. Deprived of food for even one meal, we can become irritable, grouchy and difficult to live with. Ben Patterson, who engaged in a fast with some friends, said that he learned what a slave to food he was. When he was sad, he ate. When he was happy, he ate. When he was tired, he ate. When he was depressed, he ate. When he was bored, he ate. He ate at social occasions and he ate when he was by himself. Food obviously held a much greater control over his life than he had ever imagined. His fast revealed the power food held over his life. It was a humbling experience.

2. Fasting reveals our dependence upon God. Jesus rebuffed the devil when he tempted Him to turn the stones into bread by saying to the devil, "'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'" [Matthew 4:4]. Fasting teaches us that our spiritual life is as important as is our physical life.

3. Fasting helps us to learn how to suffer for Christ. The deeper we go into Christ and the more precious Christ becomes to us, the more we will be out of step with the world around us. We will no longer feel comfortable going to some of the movies we used to watch. We will no longer feel comfortable with some of the people with whom we used to hang out. We may change the way we dress and even the way we talk. We may strive to be more moral, more honest, more kind, more patient and more loving. These changes will not be made without a price. Often that price is very painful. But there are benefits also. As we become more obedient to Christ, we become more at peace with ourselves and we become happier and more satisfied with life.

4. Fasting strengthens our prayer life. Fasting benefits us rather than God. We fast to focus our minds and our hearts upon God.

There are also many different ways to fast-

1. Fasting may be practiced as the act of abstaining from food. This is the most normal way to think of fasting. It is the way Jesus fasted during the forty days He spent in the desert. He abstained from food, but He took beverages-perhaps water, milk and juices. Some people will drink fruit juices, vegetable juices and dietary supplement drinks.

2. Fasting may be practiced as the act of abstaining from food and beverages. This is called an absolute fast and may be dangerous to a person's health if practiced for more than about three days.

3. Fasting may be practiced as the act of abstaining from certain foods. The Bible records that Daniel fasted by refusing to eat meat or to drink wine or to eat any delicate food [Daniel 10:3]. Some of us would consider it a fast if we gave up chocolate for a month, or if we gave up ice cream for a month. Ronnie Floyd, the pastor of a church in Arkansas, spent forty days drinking only the juice of fruits and vegetables. He lost twenty-four pounds in that forty days and believes that God gave him some deep insights into the spiritual life.

4. Fasting is not for everyone. It certainly is not required that Christians fast. Rather fasting is given to us that we might gain victory over our bodies to control us and to grow deeper in our relationship with Christ.

Ben Patterson and his wife entered into a forty-day fast with some friends of theirs. They agreed to abstain from eating meat, fat and sugar. They ate only vegetables, fruits and grains for the forty days. The group would meet together on Friday mornings for prayer together. He entered the fasting experience dreading it, but soon found that it was a blessing. He said, "I was surprised, then exhilarated at how free I was during the fast." Ben Patterson said that he actually dreaded for the forty days to come to an end because he was afraid he would loose the wonderful sense of freedom he had gained over food to dominate his life.

Salvation is a free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it or to deserve it. God welcomes all who will repent of their sin and accept His Son as their Savior back into the family of God. We cannot add to that experience. It is a free gift of God's grace.






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[i] Humility, revival and fasting: one man's journey in SBC Life (December 1995), p. 9

[ii] Ben Patterson, "Heart & Soul," Leadership magazine (Fall, 1997), 130.