Fasting Misunderstood
Today’s is the second of a three-part series on prayer and fasting that we are offering in response to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ call for the folks of our great state to pray and fast over lunch from July 20-22 as part of our response to the COVID-19 crisis. Yesterday, we look at the question of, “Why Should We Pray and Fast?” Today, we dive into some misunderstandings about the spiritual discipline of fasting, and, hopefully offer a more helpful lens through which we might actually come to embrace the disciple of fasting not only in special times like these but as a regular part of our Christian journey.
It has been my experience in over 20 years of full-time ministry that fasting, if it ever comes up at all in casual conversation, is usually associated with the season of Lent. This is completely understandable, for part of our Ash Wednesday liturgy is the call to observe a holy lent, with prayer and fasting. Framed in this manner, fasting is a time of careful introspection and reflection through prayer and meditation as a way to be mindful of our desperate need for the divine grace, peace, and redemption that comes only through Christ.
While there are many, many references to fasting throughout the 66 books of the canon, and there is no way we could cover all the aspects of fasting in these brief few minutes, it might be helpful for us to take a look at Psalm 109, verses 21-26:
But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads. Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
As we look at the spiritual discipline of fasting through the lens of the Psalmist’s plea to God, let us take careful note of a few things at work here:
Fasting is part of a faithful plea for God to deliver them from distress;
Fasting is part of recalling the goodness of God’s steadfast love; and,
Fasting is part of turning to God for healing in the midst of pain.
As good as all that may be, however, the crux of the discussion is found in the faithful’s acknowledgment they were made weak through fasting.
“Really, Lamar? As if we don’t know that denying oneself nourishment would make us weak.” Yes, that’s true. However, the question of WHY we are called to fast is so important. Let me say now that we are called to fasting not to show how spiritual we are, nor are we called to fasting as a way to prove we can do it.
The reason the weakness to which the Psalmist refers here is so important is that when we are weak and vulnerable we are reminded once again that we are called to find our strength from God in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Participating in the ritual of fasting serves as a way to help us refocus our lives on God’s will, in part, I believe, because it serves as a reminder that our hunger and thirst for God should be even stronger than our hunger and thirst for nourishment.
THAT, my friends, is why fasting is so important. It is not only about us setting aside time to focus on God, nor is it at all about that from which we are fasting. Fasting is, amongst other things, about consecrating time to facilitate God’s work in us through a time of sacrifice so that we are ever mindful of the absolute reality that we must find our strength from the Lord and nowhere else.
Be sure to join us tomorrow at this time for the second of our prayer and fasting series as we explore some common and unfortunate misunderstandings surrounding fasting as a spiritual discipline; join us Wednesday as we explore prayer as an act of community.
Grace & Peace,
Lamar