The Foreignness of Fasting
Sunday, we began a sermon series for Lent on repentance by looking at Joel 2:12-14. Alongside of this teaching, we also entered into a church wide fast until Easter. Fasting is consistently associated with the act of repentance in the Bible. It is an appropriate response to encountering the ways that our hearts stray from the Lord.
As I have talked with many in our community, it has become very clear how unaccustomed we are to the spiritual practice of fasting. Fasting is not commonplace for the modern day Christian. We do not have great categories to see what relevance it has for our lives and if there are any spiritual benefits other than just being “hangry.”
But fasting was a normal part of jewish life as well as the lives of Christians in the context of the New Testament. What this should tell us is that its foreignness is not a result of its irrelevance to Christianity as much as it is a result of how our modern Christian expression is out of touch with the biblical picture of Christianity. Since the Enlightenment of the late 17th-18th century, we have a hard time seeing the benefit of spiritual practices that are not intellectual. But fasting engages our bodies in a unique way that is needed in our spiritual formation and discipleship.
We naturally have this logic as it regards fasting: “I stop eating so that God can hear my prayers and I can prove to be a legit christian.” But this is not the heart of it at all. Fasting in the bible is not so much about “asserting your will on God” as much as it is about opening yourself to the work of God in your life, expressing grief over your sin and returning to a life of dependence upon Him. It’s an expression of humility before Him, as a way of saying “O Lord I need you in my life. More than the very bread I eat, your words are eternal life.” Think of Jesus in the desert as he was tempted by Satan.
Fasting may feel transactional by nature. A lot of people think that fasting is kind of how we “up the ante” on our request before God. God must hear us more if we do something demonstrative like fasting, right? But don’t think transactional. Think transformational. The logic of fasting is actually more about how God loves us and desires to transform us into a particular person by awaken our hearts to his reality afresh.
I hope that a few days in, you are experiencing a deeper hunger for Him than ever before.
In Christ,
Alex Gailey
As I have talked with many in our community, it has become very clear how unaccustomed we are to the spiritual practice of fasting. Fasting is not commonplace for the modern day Christian. We do not have great categories to see what relevance it has for our lives and if there are any spiritual benefits other than just being “hangry.”
But fasting was a normal part of jewish life as well as the lives of Christians in the context of the New Testament. What this should tell us is that its foreignness is not a result of its irrelevance to Christianity as much as it is a result of how our modern Christian expression is out of touch with the biblical picture of Christianity. Since the Enlightenment of the late 17th-18th century, we have a hard time seeing the benefit of spiritual practices that are not intellectual. But fasting engages our bodies in a unique way that is needed in our spiritual formation and discipleship.
We naturally have this logic as it regards fasting: “I stop eating so that God can hear my prayers and I can prove to be a legit christian.” But this is not the heart of it at all. Fasting in the bible is not so much about “asserting your will on God” as much as it is about opening yourself to the work of God in your life, expressing grief over your sin and returning to a life of dependence upon Him. It’s an expression of humility before Him, as a way of saying “O Lord I need you in my life. More than the very bread I eat, your words are eternal life.” Think of Jesus in the desert as he was tempted by Satan.
Fasting may feel transactional by nature. A lot of people think that fasting is kind of how we “up the ante” on our request before God. God must hear us more if we do something demonstrative like fasting, right? But don’t think transactional. Think transformational. The logic of fasting is actually more about how God loves us and desires to transform us into a particular person by awaken our hearts to his reality afresh.
I hope that a few days in, you are experiencing a deeper hunger for Him than ever before.
In Christ,
Alex Gailey
Posted in A Note From Alex
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