Practices for Lent that Help us Be with Jesus: Week 1

Fasting: Abstaining from food or other things you hunger for in order to hunger more deeply for God.   

Article: 

“Christian fasting, at its root, is hungering for God…Half of Christian fasting is that our physical appetite is lost because our hunger for God is so intense. The other half is that our hunger for God is threatened because our physical appetites are so intense. In the first half, appetite is lost. In the second half, appetite is resisted. In the first, we yield to the higher hunger that is. In the second, we fight for the higher hunger that isn’t. Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of a superior satisfaction in God; it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away. 

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. 

Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14). In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things”—these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.

Therefore, when I say that the root of Christian fasting is the hungering for God, I mean that we will do anything and go without anything if, by any means, we might protect ourselves from the deadening effects of innocent delights and preserve the sweet longings of our hunger for God. Not just food, but anything."¹

Helpful Verses: 

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.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that 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. - Matthew 6:16-18   

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.  And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry...And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. - Luke 4:1-2, 14

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’  And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. - Matthew 9:14-15

Interesting Quotes:

“I hear people say that they’re fasting, but when not eating, they’re watching TV, not praying.  That’s not fasting.  It’s dieting.”  Andrew Wilson

“The discipline of fasting can focus our prayers in the way that a magnifying glass can focus sunlight to start a fire.”  Pete Greig

“Fasting is an opportunity to lay down an appetite—an appetite for food, for media, for shopping.  This act of self-denial may not seem huge—it’s just a meal or a trip to the mall—but it brings us face to face with the hunger at the core of our being.  Fasting exposes how we try to keep empty hunger at bay and gain a sense of well-being by devouring creature comforts.  Through self-denial we begin to recognize what controls us.  Our small denials of the self show us just how little taste we actually have for sacrifice or time with God.  This truth is not meant to discourage us.  It’s simply the first step in realizing that we have to lay down our life in order to find it again in God.  Adele Calhoun

Exercises:

1) During the season of Lent (2/26-4/9) choose something to fast (abstain) from.

• If you’re fasting from food, take baby steps: if you’ve never fasted before then just start with one meal.  Once you’ve tried that a few times, try fasting from your evening meal one day to your evening meal the next day).
• Feel free to fast from things other than food.  It's not uncommon for Christians to refrain for 40 days from things like television, social networking, caffeine, sweets, music, shopping for non-essentials, sleep².

2) As you fast, let your hunger or lack turn your thoughts and heart Godward.  When you experience desire for the thing you’ve temporarily forsaken, let that longing be a cue to refocus on God.

3) Look for what begins to stir in you that you normally keep at bay through comfort from eating, drinking, etc.

• If anger, for example, starts to rise, invite God into it and ask Him what the cause of that anger really is.

4) Use the time you would normally be eating (or doing whatever it is you’re fasting from) to read your Bible and pray.

• If you’re unsure of what to read/pray, try the Lent for Everyone reading plan in YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/83-lent-for-everyone).

5) Breaking a fast early can cause people to feel guilty and like they’ve sinned.  Achieving a fast can cause people to feel pride and like they’ve earned favor with God.  Watch out for both of these reactions as neither are healthy nor a biblical picture of fasting.

¹ John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer, 14-15. 

² If you choose to fast from sleep, you are not expected to abstain from sleep for the entire 40 day period.  Those who practice this type of fast typically choose 1 or 2 days a week to wake up an hour or two earlier (or stay up an hour or two later) and devote that time to Bible study and prayer.