Fasting
by David Bruns
January 27, 2010
When you hear the word “fasting” what comes to mind? Do you think of some wild-eyed religious fanatic, or envision someone with hollowed eyes and cheeks? Is it a discipline that just doesn’t apply to us anymore? Do you believe that it is just too hard as a spiritual discipline? Or do you just not know much about it at all as a spiritual practice?
In an article this brief, I will not be able to provide much detail about all of the good reasons to practice fasting or the practical guidelines on how to fast, though I will recommend a few resources. What I would like to do is motivate you a bit to consider joining thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ in many Christian traditions who make fasting a part of their regular spiritual practices.
It’s timely to consider fasting now because we are approaching the season of Lent – the forty-day period of preparation for Easter. In Western Christianity, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is February 17 this year.
Many Christians “give up” something during Lent. You may have heard someone say that they are giving up chocolate, TV, or something else for Lent. A friend of mine who has a real sugar tooth gives up any form of sugar for the 40 days of Lent.
That “giving up” of something is a form of fasting. Fasting in the Bible typically means abstaining from food and, at times drink, for spiritual purposes. A fast may be simply abstaining from a meal during a day, or fasting for a 24-hour period, or for longer periods of time. However, the practice of fasting can be broadened to the “voluntary denial of [any] normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity” (Richard Foster); i.e., food, TV, Internet, Facebook, Twitter, sex, spending, etc.
The reasons and purposes for fasting are numerous, but the primary motive/focus in Scripture is one of God-centeredness. Jesus in Matthew 4, 6 and 9 talked about good and improper motives and practices of fasting. While He did not specifically command fasting, there is an expectation in His comments that fasting would be a usual and normal practice of His followers.
Observe Jesus’ own experience of fasting as recorded in Matthew 4:1-4: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Effective fasting is accompanied by prayer and Scripture. Fasting can become feasting on God!
What difference can fasting make in our lives? Note what Dallas Willard affirms about spiritual disciplines in general: “A discipline for the spiritual life is… an activity undertaken to bring us into more effective cooperation with Christ and His Kingdom. When we understand that grace (charis) is gift (charisma), we then see that to grow in grace is to grow in what is given to us of God and by God. The disciplines are then, in the clearest sense, a means to that grace and also to those gifts. Spiritual disciplines… are activities undertaken to make us capable of receiving more of His life and power” (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 156).
Willard categorizes spiritual disciplines as either “disciplines of abstinence” – e.g., fasting, silence, solitude – or “disciplines of engagement” – e.g., study, worship, prayer. This is helpful in applying spiritual disciplines to areas of life in which we would like to change. Sin can be divided into 2 general categories: sins of omission (not doing things we should do) and sins of commission (doing things we ought to avoid). The application is this: if I struggle with a sin of commission, practicing a discipline of abstinence will generally help me in changing in that area. Conversely, if I struggle with a sin of omission, I will be helped by a discipline of engagement. (Thanks to John Ortberg for his connection of these in The Life You’ve Always Wanted, p. 57-58.)
To be more specific, fasting may help us in areas of gluttony, addiction, and pace; though the beneficial effect of fasting often applies to many other areas of our life where “consumption” is part of the issue. The interesting thing is that the change occurs not so much because I stopped eating, watching TV, or whatever; but rather, I find myself being changed from the inside out, because I have given God access to my life through the discipline, and His grace begins to do its work in me.
One precaution regarding fasting or any of the disciplines… Our motive in practicing the disciplines cannot be to attain some merit with God, to get some bargaining advantage with God, or to prove our maturity or sanctity. Nor can it be a mere outward performance of some activity. We are simply providing space in our life for God and His activity (grace) to begin to change our heart (our inner self). It does require effort on our part, but as Dallas Willard is fond of saying, “Grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning.” It is a cooperative effort for us with God (Philippians 2:12-13).
Some resources that have been helpful for me in thinking about and practicing spiritual disciplines such as fasting include: The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard; The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster; The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg; and Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald S. Whitney. A useful website on fasting by Campus Crusade for Christ contains short articles written by Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of CCC. Dr. Bright regularly practiced fasting, including some 40-day fasts; so he writes from personal experience, as well as Biblical insight. Here is a link to that site: http://www.ccci.org/training-and-growth/devotional-life/personal-guide-to-fasting/index.htm
Allow me to leave you with some “food” for thought from others regarding this important discipline:
“Self-indulgence is the enemy of gratitude, and self-discipline usually its friend and generator. That is why gluttony is a deadly sin. The early desert fathers believed that a person’s appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for righteousness. They spoil the appetite for God.” (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., The Reformed Journal, November, 1988)
“Gluttony makes a man gloomy and fearful, but fasting makes him joyful and courageous. And, as gluttony calls forth greater and greater gluttony, so fasting stimulates greater and greater endurance. When a man realizes the grace that comes through fasting, he desires to fast more and more. And the graces that come through fasting are countless....” (Saint Nikolai of Zicha)
Preparing this article has inspired me to resume practicing fasting on a more regular basis. Will you join me in feasting on God?
Introduction to Spiritual Disciplines
January 1, 2010
By Ken Dean
Exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:7-8
Know that the ancient enemy strives by any means he can to hinder your longing for good and to keep you away from all devotional exercises.
THOMAS ‘A KEMPIS, (IMITATION OF CHRIST III, 7)
Our spiritual journeys often get stalled in opposite reactions to the same frustration. Each of us reaches a point sometime when we realize that there is a gap between where we are in our spiritual life and the abundant life that Christ talks about in the Gospels. One reaction to this frustration is to settle and say “well this is all there is so I will either just make the best of it.” Another reaction is to just try harder – to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and push through. Neither of these approaches will result in the abundant life of Christ.
The quotations above appear on the first page of a book entitled Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard given to me by a friend 20 years ago. When I first received the book the title sounded strange to me. It sounded like a book on how to earn God’s grace by my effort. However, after the book’s pages aged to a faded yellow, I read it and learned it was different than my first impression. Willard’s central claim in the book is that “…we can become like Christ by doing one thing – by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.” Willard echoes the belief of many of our early church fathers who believed that we can actually realize our highest potential, becoming like Christ, by practicing the activities that Jesus did when he was physically on this earth. That is the essence of what the Spiritual Disciplines are – doing the things that Jesus did. Things like prayer, solitude, silence, study and meditation on scripture, living simply and sacrificially, and serving others.
Last year I met Dallas Willard and asked him what he thought was missing in modern evangelical thinking. He said, “The early church fathers did not struggle with a separation between effort and grace.” He explained that the perception that effort and grace are opposed is a fairly recent theological bent. Rather, most leaders throughout church history clearly understood that effort did not earn you God’s grace, but effort did enable you to grow in grace (as Paul encourages Timothy to do in 1 Timothy 4:7-8).
Sanctification is God’s work just like salvation. The reason and benefit of practicing Spiritual Disciplines is to open ourselves more directly and frequently to the work of God in us and to grow in our closeness to him. Talbot Seminary professor John Coe refers to the process of Spiritual Formation (growing in Christ Likeness) to be the process where we:
Lead with our body, to open our heart, to the work of the spirit.
Over the course of 2010, myself and other pastors on staff will be posting articles about various spiritual disciplines. Each article will explain the history and purpose of the discipline, and provide you with simple suggestions concerning how you can incorporate the discipline into your spiritual life. Keep checking back!
Remember that we have a real enemy, and just like Thomas ‘A Kempis reminds us -he works “…to stay thy desire in good and to make thee void of all good exercise.” Let us put the admonitions of scripture into practice and finish our race well by exercising towards godliness. The Puritans had a saying to motivate perseverance in their spiritual journey - “I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.” This saying reminded them that God is doing the work, and it is on going. God has saved me, he is sanctifying me, and he has a future glorification in store for me.
Spiritual Exercise – Prayer of Recollection
One ancient spiritual activity is a “Prayer of Recollection”. This is a prayer activity that’s primary purpose to recollect ones heart, and directs it back towards God. Here is a link to a web site that has an adapted version of a Prayer of Recollection from John Coe.
http://sccprayer.blogspot.com/2009/01/prayer-of-recollection.html