Can I be honest? I really don’t like fasting.
I can’t say that I’ve ever had a good experience fasting. I’m hungry all time, I’m irritable and I’ve never experienced a breakthrough like other people have talked about. Truthfully, I don’t feel like I’m a very good Christian when I start talking like this.
On the other hand, I can see clearly why fasting can be a good discipline for spiritual formation.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts concerning fasting as I interact with the topic in my Spiritual Formation class. I’m not convinced that fasting is a requirement for Christians. I don’t think that’s it’s commanded in the bible. I don’t think it’s ‘up there’ with The Lord’s Supper or even on par with singing praise-songs. I do think that fasting is good, but not required. I recognize that fasting has long been a benefit to Christians throughout history, but up to this point, I personally have not found fasting to be worth the effort. It’s at this point that all the highly spiritual and disciplined Christians scold me for uttering these words.
I believe the scriptures when they say that mankind doesn’t live on bread alone, but by the words of God. Ultimately, I believe that God, not food, sustains me. In a very real sense I don’t need food more than I need God. So, in this sense my fasting experiences are a sign or a symbol to me and to God that I need God more than I need food. As a matter of fact, I need God MUCH more than I need food. Ultimately, God will sustain me for eternity. At some point in my life food will fail to have any sustaining qualities at all.
I remember that once I had heard a teaching about fasting and this phrase has stuck with me. “While fasting, we aren’t meant to be fasting FROM something, but we are to be fasting TOWARD something”. I pondered this statement and I think that I agree. I think that a fast that is intended to be an experience related to Spiritual Formation should not be reduced to a phrase like, “I’m fasting from red meat, sugar, or alcohol.” I think that a big point to fasting should not be what we are fasting from. I think coming from that angle cheapens/lessens the impact of the fast. The focus shouldn’t be what we are giving up, but on something ahead of us. The focus shouldn’t be on what food we are missing, but it should be about what we are missing! In other words, there’s a very real sense that we are ‘giving something up’ (food), but the focus might be better if it was surrounded by what spiritual need (i.e. confession, repentance or prayer)we’ve given up– what spiritual things have been missing in our lives. So, in that sense, fasting may be best if it’s focused on what we are fasting TOWARD, which should be something vital to our lives that we currently don’t have, but that we desire to have.
This has not been my favorite topic to discuss. Maybe that means I should engage it more?
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