Lent is upon us… well, it’s upon those who observe lent.
The word Lent originally meant ‘lengthen’, as in the daylight hours of Spring, but in the more traditional Christian world, it has come to signify the 40 days of preparation for Easter. The main idea is that Christians should examine their lives, repent of sin, and attempt to present themselves as pleasing to God. One of the main ways they try to achieve this is by fasting.
In Old Testament times good Israelites fasted for several different reasons, but the most common reason was to demonstrate their grief and anguish of heart. When someone died, the family would fast as a way of evidencing their grief. When the nation disobeyed God and the people then realised their error they would fast to demonstrate their repentance. However, the religious leaders gradually replaced this fasting-from-the-heart with an ostentatious style of fasting designed to demonstrate their personal piety. So, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day would fast on one or two days a week to show others just how ‘holy’ they were, and they made sure everyone knew that they were fasting. Jesus addressed this religious pride and hypocrisy when He said, “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, 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.” (Matthew 6:16–18).
When today’s Christians wish to justify why they fast, say for Lent, they often quote this passage because Jesus said “When you fast” and not “if you fast” and was thus endorsing the practice for His followers… so they say. However his teaching was part of the well-known Sermon on the Mount, and although His disciples were present Jesus was addressing a large crowd of traditional Jewish folk (Matthew 7:29). They understood the why and how of fasting.
I have sometimes fasted from all foods for up to a week, but in my later years have come to realise that fasting, other than for health reasons, is problematic on a number of grounds:
- First is the lack of any reasonable biblical endorsement, let alone encouragement.
- Second, are the dubious motivations and practices that are so common when it comes to fasting. If we, as Christians, do decide to fast then the only legitimate spiritual motivation I can see is the desire to use abstinence as a way of drawing closer to Jesus. This means that we would need to use the mechanism of fasting in a conscious way to deal with sin issues, spend more time in prayer, and so on. To sit at a dinner table and refuse to eat by saying “Sorry, but I am fasting” doesn’t create the time or focus for drawing closer to God and is, in essence, pharisaic.
- To token-fast by missing one meal a day and by eating before 6 am and again after 6 pm is, in my opinion, religious superficiality. To refrain from consuming food and beverages and then walking around looking and sounding grumpy and longing for a headache tablet is, again in my opinion, just puerile.
The only way I can conceive of a valid fast, for Lent or at any other time, is to use the time when one would normally eat to pray and meditate and to respond to the pangs and aches associated with short-term fasting by drawing aside to read the scriptures and pray. Why else would we want to fast?
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3 thoughts on “Fasting or loosing”
Hi Chris, may I just say that you like being controversial (love it- makes one Think), but then again there are a lot of things that as Christians we do because those before us were doing them (parents, Church, etc) and these we do not question, and like the Bereans interrogate the scriptures to see what they say about fasting in the New Dispensation of the NT. Surely we are no longer under the law and we are not saved by works of fasting but His grace alone.
If you take away Fasting and the different types of Fasting that churches go through, i.e (corporate fast- normally in January, Daniel’s fast-21days (Veges,fruits only), the Dry Fast, Liquids only Fast, 3 days, 7days, 14 days and the extreme 41days fast in the mountain), tell me what will the Religious Churches and Christians do with their Free time, and if you take away something that makes them believe in their own righteousness, united prayers, and that their fasting will bring them closer to God and God will surely hear their prayers when they fast for this and that, who are we to judge? Legalistic though it may all seem to a mature Christian?
Here is what I believe Fasting is and should be; I believe that Fasting does not bend God’s Will or twist His hand. Fasting cannot make God change someone, punish someone or change the situation you’re in (mostly seen in the OT). Fasting for long days, even exceeding the 40days and 40nights Jesus fasted is legalistic, presumptious, pharisaical and downright dangerous. Ellen G. White said that ” Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him” and I believe this should also apply to fasting. You fast because you want to consencrate yourself to Him, you fast because the will, often stubborn, refuses to yield and surrender unto Him. You fast because you want Him to reveal His Will for you on certain issues that may not be clear to you. You fast because the ‘flesh, mind’, must also be surrendered to Him; does’nt the scripture say ” Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit”? Jesus also said,’Man shall not leave by bread alone” (Matth 4:4). Your fasting becomes fruitless and plain legalism if it is not done with feeding on God’s Word, in Prayer, and Meditating on His Word and listening to Him. I have found that my fasting is fruitful when it is the Spirit that fast, as it is spontaneous when it happens, without my resolve and its 6pm to 6pm for days or 2 weeks at the most and will find myself praying on things that I would normally not pray about, praying His will.
Were’nt the Apostles Fasting and praying when the Holy Spirit told them to choose Barnabus and Saul and sending them off to spread the gospel to the gentiles?( Acts 13:2). The apostles seems to have fasted with prayers when they were met with critical decisions or when they appointed elders (Acts 14:23). Shouldnt the church of Christ do the same when faced with critical decisions, where God’s will is not known or unclear, to fast with prayers in seeking His will for that particular situation?Wouldnt the Corporate prayer prevail much with God when it is done with Fasting (mind, body soul and spirit all surrendered and yielding to the Potter and His will)? Just my thoughts.
Sibu, as usual your comments are comprehensive and sound; thank you for taking the time to contribute.
Hi Chris.
My view on fasting is that we put to death the flesh so that the Spirit becomes more dominant. In my opinion this is the only valid reason for a fast under the new covenant. I believe that to fast to “hear God more clearly” or to find out His will, is somewhat spiritual blackmail. However the fact that your flesh is being put to death and your Spirit becomes more active, the consequence of this is that you will hear God more clearly. It’s all about motive since God looks at the heart.