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053 | The Biblical Case for Fasting (and How to Start)
581 Plays4 years ago
Have you ever wondered why Christians fast? We have a rich collection of examples in the bible and church history, but we don't always discuss why they were fasting in the first place! Learn the reasons to fast and how to do so in this short episode. Show notes on the blog.
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Transcript
Introduction to Verity Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Verity. I'm your host, Felicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith, ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You don't have to settle for watered-down Christian teachings, and if you're ready to go deeper, God is just as ready to take you there. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian.
Personal Experience and Significance of Fasting
00:00:31
Speaker
Today we're going to talk about fasting. You know, I have only fasted personally a few times in my spiritual life. All of those were very short periods of time.
00:00:45
Speaker
But I think fasting is a practice that I want to make a part of my own spiritual life on a regular basis, partially because of what we see in scripture and the example of fasting that we're going to talk about today.
00:01:04
Speaker
but also through the rich history of this practice in the lives of believers that I want to emulate. So of course we have the biblical examples, but when you look through church history, you can't help but see this legacy
00:01:22
Speaker
of people whose spiritual lives included prayer and fasting. Now of course there are other religions that practice fasting as well, but in Christianity fasting serves a purpose of lament, of drawing to repentance, and mostly of coming to the Lord in humility and recognizing that He is God and we are not.
00:01:49
Speaker
Some of the people who are known for fasting are John Wesley. He was known to integrate fasting into his spiritual life. John Knox. One of the things I think is fascinating about Knox is that Queen Mary is said to have made mention of his spiritual life, saying that she feared Knox's prayers more than the armies of Scotland because he was known to fast and pray on a weekly basis.
00:02:19
Speaker
Now, obviously, we aren't these amazing spiritual leaders of church history, but what we do know is that each of these people were normal humans who had a supernatural capacity to accomplish what God had called them to do.
00:02:37
Speaker
And I would argue that the reason that they had that capacity is because of the time they spent in God's presence, both in prayer and in the Word, but also in fasting. And so that's why we're going to touch on this today in this shorter episode of Verity Podcast. If you have questions about fasting and what that looks like, how to start, this episode is for you.
Understanding Types of Fasting
00:03:02
Speaker
So what exactly is fasting? I think a lot of us first hear about fasting in context of Lent. Since the holiday of Lent, a church holiday, has become more popular in recent years as non-denominational churches have adopted more liturgical practices, we've become familiar with going without things in order to draw close to the Lord.
00:03:28
Speaker
What's interesting is that most of the time this isn't food. Most of the time people are quote-unquote fasting social media or fasting shopping or something else. And those things are very good. However, real biblical fasting is to fast from food. It doesn't mean that fasting other things isn't important, but it's not the same. It's different.
00:03:55
Speaker
And fasting food is the example that we have in scripture. It's going without food for a time, a designated period of time, in order to draw near to the Lord in prayer and sometimes specifically pray over an issue that's on your heart. So a specific issue that you have been impressed to intercede for or to seek the Lord's face over.
00:04:22
Speaker
There are two types of fasting. There are partial fasts, such as Daniel's fasts of rich foods and meat, his basically vegetarian fast that he did, or you have a complete fast. So this is like what Jesus did in the wilderness, what we see some of the disciples doing, what we see in the Old Testament, which is abstaining from all forms of food and just drinking water or sometimes broth or juice. Now, the Bible is full of passages about fasting.
00:04:51
Speaker
Judges 20, 26 says, Then all the people of Israel, the whole army went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, for the Ark of the Covenant of God was there in those days.
00:05:12
Speaker
So the purpose of this fast was lament and seeking the Lord's face for wisdom in the decision that they were going to be making. We go forward to Ezra 10.6 and it shows Ezra fasting again in lament and appealing for the repentance of the people and for revival in Jonah.
00:05:37
Speaker
Three, we see that there is fasting and mourning over sin as a consequence of Jonah's preaching. Second Samuel, we see David fasting and pleading with God for his son's life. He's fasting and mourning over his sin and also fasting to intercede.
00:05:57
Speaker
And all through the Psalms, we see this example of fasting set forth. Now, what's interesting is in Isaiah, we're going to look at Isaiah 58, is that the concept of fasting, though a principle all throughout the Bible, isn't just fasting to put on some sort of spiritual maturity or to appear more holy, which Jesus talks about in Matthew 6. But in Isaiah 58,
00:06:25
Speaker
It says, Is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
00:06:47
Speaker
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
00:06:57
Speaker
So I read a little further than verse six. I actually read through verse eight. But what the Lord is saying through Isaiah here is that you can fast and you can pray and you can sacrifice as much as you want. But if your heart is not aligned with the Lord's, that fasting is
Biblical Guidance on Fasting
00:07:15
Speaker
useless. It's just an outward expression. So if you are fasting and praying and pursuing these spiritual disciplines, but you are abandoning the oppressed,
00:07:24
Speaker
in the homeless and you aren't paying attention to the needs of people around you, then you are not fasting in accordance with the Spirit of God. You are just fasting for yourself. So let's go forward now to Matthew 6 where Jesus talks about this exact thing in a different context.
00:07:44
Speaker
when he's confronting the spiritual leaders of the day. He says, and when you fast, notice that he says, when not if, 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.
00:08:09
Speaker
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." This is actually the third time in Matthew 6 that Jesus says, your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And what do we know about studying the Bible? When we see things in threes, we should pay attention. That repetition means that this is very important. This is powerful.
00:08:38
Speaker
And so he's basically saying in these three passages, he talks about giving, praying and fasting, not to do it publicly for attention and celebration, but to do it privately for the sake of the Lord, for your relationship with the Lord. So this isn't about appearing holier or making yourself into something greater than you are. The heart of fasting is humbling oneself before the Lord.
00:09:06
Speaker
That really is the motivation to a fast, to humble yourself before the Lord, and oftentimes to appeal to Him for a specific purpose.
Upcoming Launch of Every Woman a Theologian Shop
00:09:19
Speaker
Heads up, you guys. The next every woman a theologian shop is coming to you September 2nd through 5th, 2021. Our shop operates on a pre-order basis, which means you place your order and four to five weeks after that we ship it out.
00:09:35
Speaker
We do our best to give you quality, custom designed, locally printed and ethically made products that reflect the gospel and the heart of every woman a theologian. In this shop, we're focusing on the theme of death losing its sting.
00:09:53
Speaker
In September and October, as Halloween approaches, there can be a lot of focus on death and darkness. And so we want to shed some light on that season and talk about the power of the gospel over death. We have some brand new shirt designs with this theme, some posters, and an ebook teaching you how to think critically through Halloween and what you want to do as a family or as an individual for the holiday as a Christian.
00:10:19
Speaker
I'm excited for this new launch. I hope you are too. Stay tuned to my email list as well as to our social media in order to pay attention to the launch and place your order when it opens September 2nd. This brings us to why we fast. It is to humble ourselves, but also it has to do with a lamentation or repentance.
Fasting as Lament and Repentance
00:10:44
Speaker
So lament is something that's an often forgotten spiritual practice. It's grieving over sin, loss, or division. So you can lament sin like David did. You could lament loss.
00:11:00
Speaker
So experiencing grief over the loss of a loved one or a sickness and illness, accident, financial loss, it can be grieving division in the church or a need for revival. Fasting can be a part of the grieving process and interceding for revival and restoration.
00:11:19
Speaker
So you may be fasting to lament for repentance, but you could also fast and lament over the brokenness of this world and asking the Lord to intercede into a situation.
00:11:32
Speaker
In both cases, you're really humbling yourself in inviting dependency on the Lord, inviting the power of God into that situation, intentionally surrendering to Him, and depriving yourself of food for a set period of time in order to focus your attention on the spiritual and to make yourself more attentive to God's movements.
00:11:53
Speaker
The few times that I have fasted, and I say few times because for the recent years of my life, I have often been pregnant or breastfeeding. And so during those times, fasting food was not appropriate. But now that I'm not in that season at the moment, it's something that I am planning to integrate into my own spiritual walk again. And earlier in my walk when I was practicing this on occasion,
00:12:18
Speaker
in working full-time, by the way, I would add, which does add an element to fasting that can make it a little bit difficult. The point of it is to direct your attentions to the Lord. And so when I was not eating food, and by the way, I love food. When I was not eating food, every time I had a hunger pang or I thought, oh, I want a snack or oh, I want coffee, it directed my attention back to the Lord and it reminded me
00:12:47
Speaker
Why am I going without food today? Oh, it's to pray for this specific issue. It's to remind me of my dependency on the Lord and remind me to lift up this issue to Him. It's saying I take this issue so seriously that I'm going to go without today in order to bring that issue to the Lord and remind myself through the loss of food
00:13:16
Speaker
of how seriously I take this, how seriously I take my walk with God and how much I need his strength in order to intercede on this issue and in order to make it through this day. And specifically when I was fasting while working full-time, I mean, that meant not having the office donuts and, you know, not going to the office coffee maker and turning down lunch dates or, you know, only bringing broth to drink during the day so that I could still focus on my time.
00:13:44
Speaker
and it wasn't always easy, but I specifically remember fasting over a period of time when Josh and I were trying to get engaged and he needed a job and he applied to no less than 35 jobs and he was not finding anything. And so I would walk down to the prayer chapel, I worked at a Christian university, walk down to the prayer chapel and pray on my lunch breaks. And there were a couple of different times when I fasted for a day or two, I mean, as we were walking through that season,
00:14:12
Speaker
And I remember just how powerful that experience was in turning my attentions to the Lord. And I focused to Him and not just becoming ambivalent about the issue that we were walking through.
00:14:26
Speaker
So the point of fasting is lament and or repentance and ultimately to humble oneself before the Lord. We have so many biblical examples that show us how to fast, what to fast, why to fast. And of course, we have Jesus as the ultimate example, who was God. And yet he also fasted and gave us that example. And he also says here in Matthew six that fasting is really important, that it's not if you fast, but when you fast.
Practical Tips for Beginning Fasting
00:14:56
Speaker
So in this final part of this episode, I want to talk about how to start fasting, because if you are starting out and you're like, Oh my gosh, that sounds really hard. I'll tell you, yes, it can be very hard, but I still think that you're very capable of integrating this if you take it a little at a time. So I would encourage starting out with a short fast. So maybe even half a day or one day from breakfast to dinner.
00:15:24
Speaker
You can start out with something small like that where you are letting go of coffee and lunch and snacks for that eight hour period of time and instead focusing that time on prayer. You could do a one or two day fast, so extending it a little bit longer or maybe try a partial fast where you are only eating vegetables like Daniel instead of eating everything that you normally eat.
00:15:50
Speaker
Make sure you prepare yourself for a fast by drinking plenty of water. This is a good idea all the time, but drink plenty of water before and during. That's so, so important because your body is going to need that. Also make sure that the day before you start a fast, you aren't binging on Oreos and Doritos and
00:16:11
Speaker
and like storing up your food for the fast because that actually can make you feel sicker and cause you to crash, particularly if you consume a lot of caffeine and sugar the day before you start a fast. It would be much better to transition to a vegetarian diet the couple days before you start a fast and then go through your fast, whether that's a day or two. Once you've attempted a shorter fast, then you can ease into longer periods at a time.
00:16:39
Speaker
So again, the transition is really important. Water is really important to sustain you for that time. I have done broth based fasts before, so I felt like that was important when I was fasting at work because I needed the protein in order to pay attention. At that point in my life, I was drinking a lot of caffeine. So coming off of the caffeine caused me to be really tired at work and the broth protein really, really helped with that.
00:17:09
Speaker
So something to consider is if you do drink a lot of caffeine, you're going to be off caffeine for your fast. So I would recommend weaning off of caffeine about a week or so before you start your fast. Otherwise it's going to be a pretty steep crash and it'll be hard for you to sustain your fast for that day or two. Another thing I encourage is accountability. So it would be great if you could fast with someone else for your first day.
00:17:39
Speaker
I think that having that accountability, someone to talk with and pray with as you're walking through it really helps to stick with it. It can work really well to do this with your spouse if you're married or even your boyfriend or girlfriend because having your spouse with you kind of, I think it's hard when you're fasting and your spouse isn't in yet.
00:18:01
Speaker
you might be cooking the meals or sitting at dinner and everybody's eating. So if you're both fasting, that can be a really great way to have accountability and to walk through it together. Now, obviously I have fasted when Josh was not fasting and it was possible, but I'm saying that it is helpful if you both happen to be fasting, even if you're praying for different things.
00:18:21
Speaker
Lastly, don't rush the process. Remember that this is a spiritual discipline. So it's slow, it takes time. Concentrate on other spiritual disciplines alongside fasting. So things like Bible study, journaling, prayer, stillness and silence, and worshipping through music. These are all great spiritual disciplines to incorporate into your fast.
00:18:44
Speaker
I love the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. It's one of my favorite books of all time. It's fantastic. He has a whole chapter on fasting that would be so helpful, but then all of his other chapters about spiritual disciplines, like I just mentioned, would work super well coordinated with your fast.
Additional Resources and Closing Remarks
00:19:05
Speaker
I hope this was helpful. If you're thinking about fasting, the show notes for this episode will be on my blog at FeliciaMasonHeimer.com. I'll also have some links, including a link to a fantastic series of articles by crew on fasting and how to do it.
00:19:22
Speaker
how to prepare your body and especially if you are on medications, it's really important that you talk with your doctor before you choose to do a fast because you don't want to be removing obviously your medications or necessary nutrients from your body when that may be necessary for you. So be sure to check with your doctor or holistic practitioner before you choose to do a fast if you are on any medications or supplements that could be compromised if you are no longer eating food.
00:19:50
Speaker
All the show notes, again, will be on the blog and the transcription will be up within a week or two. Thanks for listening, you guys. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Verity. You can connect with fellow listeners by following me on Instagram at Felicia Masonheimer or on our Facebook page by the same name. Also visit FeliciaMasonheimer.com for links to each episode and the show notes.