Fasting…the long lost brother of meditation and prayer. What is fasting and why is it the long lost brother? I call fasting the long lost bother because it complements the disciple of mediation and prayer so well but it appears that it had died out. Fasting is usually one of those disciplines that is not the first discipline to come to mind. So what is fasting and more importantly how does the Bible talk about fasting?
The Bible refers to fasting as abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Fasting is meant to be a private matter between the individual and God. However, there are times when corporate fasting is appropriate. There are three types of fast. The first one is what is called a normal fast that is abstaining from all food, solid or liquid, but not from water. The second type is a partial fast and this is a restriction on the diet but not complete abstention. The third type is absolute fast which is no food or water. A word of caution with this one: it is the “exception and should never be engaged in unless one has a very clear command form God, and then for no more than three days” (Foster, 50).
So for this week, I chose to do the normal fast for one day. My plan was to eat no food but drink only water. I chose to do it on Saturday. At first, the practice was easy, I had no desire to eat food but as the day wore on the temptation to eat grew stronger. I found it difficult to want to say no to the food especially while putting away food after dinner.
Foster suggested to mediate and pray during the time you would normally eat. So I took Foster’s advice. I went to a Psalm I knew fairly well, Psalms 139. I focused on the last verse which reads:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Mediating on this verse and practicing the disciple of fasting, I discovered three things. The first one is I had better concentration. I was able to focus better and felt more accomplished in the things I did. The second thing is that I take for granted the blessing God had bestowed upon me, that is, I was making my excess into necessities. This view was producing an attitude of selfishness and self entitlement, “I needed these things to survive.” The third and most important thing I learned is that there are other areas of in my life where my desire for food spilled into my desire for other things in these other areas. One such area is media. I am an avid fan of shows like the Amazing Race and Survivor but these shows often get more of my attention than God does.
But God used the practice of fasting to reveal these things. Then on Sunday, I notice that I was very restless, not in the sense that I was too busy but in the sense that all the things I would normally do to occupy my time, minecraft, movies, etc., did not sound to appealing. I had this desire to do something different. However, I could not wrap my mind around what it was.
Yet somehow I found myself still participating in these excesses even though they were not appealing to me at that moment. Why did I return to such things when I found no satisfaction in them? I am not sure why. However what I do know is that during this week I must try to put God first.
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