During our 40-Day Prayer Adventure, we are going to issue several “Prayer Challenges” for you to get your heart and brain around, with the idea that you will push yourself beyond your comfort zone for the purpose of experiencing greater spiritual growth. What the 5K is for running, fasting is for prayer. Here’s an introduction to this important spiritual discipline.
I forget why it happened, but in college I began to practice the discipline of fasting. I saw that fasting was a frequent Old Testament practice, and that the Lord assumed his followers would practice it, and that the apostles did it too. So I gave it the college try, and have practiced it with varying degrees of success ever since.
There are a couple of things I can conclusively say about it. One, is that of all the spiritual disciplines, it is the one I resist the most. My flesh – both my physical body and mind, as well as my sin nature – scream and howl like a spoiled brat when I set myself to do it. It’s the one discipline that offers zero pleasure while you’re doing it.
Every other discipline – Bible reading, prayer, service, solitude, etc. – parcels out at least some joy while you practice it, and of course gives a huge payoff afterwards. Fasting gives the back-end payoff in spades, but on the front-end, it’s a milelong hike straight up a barren, boulder-strewn mountain. You just lower your head and push forward.
However about that backend payoff – my goodness is it worth it! I have experienced multiple “revival seasons” in my 50 years of following Christ, where the Lord helped me take a quantum leap forward in spiritual strength. When I look back at these seasons, there’s one thing they all have in common – they were times when I had dramatically stepped up my prayer life, and attached to my praying was invariably a return to fasting.
A few quick observations about fasting:
- The church has by-in-large taught and observed fasting for most of its 2,000 year history. Curiously, the case can be made that the more wealthy and comfortable a culture gets (and the Christians along with it) the less you hear about it. I wonder why that is.
- While a small but real percentage of people absolutely should not fast (anyone with blood-sugar issues would be ill-advised to attempt it without a physician’s oversight), most people are able to fast without ill effects. You won’t die; it will only feel like you are.
- Fasting has been shown to have a wide array of benefits beyond the spiritual. Those who practice it often find it physically cleansing, emotionally cathartic, and mentally stimulating. I can testify to each of those spinoff effects.
However it’s for the purpose of deepening and strengthening our prayer life that we want to bring it up at this point in our 40-Day prayer journey. Here are 4 spiritual benefits of fasting which help explain why this discipline has great potency for deepening your walk with Christ.
Fasting says to God, I’m hungry…for more of you.
If I fast with the right motive, then my heart is geared up to seek God in a longer, deeper, more intense way that ordinary. My spiritual self is energized when I take the time reserving for eating, and spend it instead in mediation and prayer. And God rewards such commitment. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
Fasting says to God, I’m broken…please save me from my sin.
In Scripture, fasting is commonly connected to confession and repentance. “Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning.’” (Joel 2:12-13) Don’t expect to hear angels singing while you fast. Fasting, by nature of what it is, will bring out all manners of ugliness in you. Like melted silver, fasting brings to the surface the dross in my life – the things which control me, the passions which drive me, the desires I can’t shake. If you find yourself feeling interminably stuck in a sin or a harmful habit or attitude, fasting can provide the breakthrough you’re desperate for.
Fasting says to God, I’m listening…please speak to me.
Fasting has another powerful benefit – it helps us hear the voice of God more clearly. If you find yourself needing wisdom from God about a critical decision you have to make, fasting can provide mental clarity. Jesus prayed the entire night (presumably fasting while he did it) before choosing his 12 disciples – arguably the most important decision he would make for his mission, and the future Church.
For a church, fasting says to God, We’re weak…please show us your power.
Fasting is an appropriate corporate discipline for the church to observe. The missionary revival of the early church was birthed in fasting. “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.” (Acts 13:2).
One of the outcomes of proper fasting should be that the congregation’s heart begins to beat more in sync with God’s heart, which should lead to a growing desire to share God’s truth and compassion with our broken world (Isaiah 58:6-8). For a church that is struggling or stuck in place, fasting can break apart the logjam holding it in place.
Pastor Mark Batterson encourages his church to observe regular fasting. He writes in Draw The Circle: “An empty stomach may be the most powerful prayer posture in Scripture. It’s even more powerful than kneeling. It shows God that we mean business. And when we fast, God makes our business His business.”
We’ll have more practical guidance to offer about fasting tomorrow. For now, begin to wrestle with God about if he would call you to this discipline during our 40-Day journey.
Enjoy this timeless worship classic.