Fasting: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life
33
Fasting: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life
33Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781619705609 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hendrickson Publishers, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 04/18/2021 |
| Series: | Everyday Matters Bible Studies for Women |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 33 |
| File size: | 402 KB |
Read an Excerpt
Everyday Matters Bible Studies for Womenâ?"Fasting
By Hendrickson Publishers
Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC
Copyright © 2014 Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLCAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61970-560-9
CHAPTER 1
Why Should We Fast?
Seeking Less in a Life of Too Much
Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;
our heart's desire is to glorify your name.
All night long I search for you;
in the morning I earnestly seek for God.
For only when you come to judge the earth
will people learn what is right.
Isaiah 26:8–9
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For this study, read Isaiah 26. _____________________________________________________________________
In my early adulthood, both my weight and my finances were strained. I weighed far too much and owed far too much, which led to a lot of anxiety and discomfort. And yet when I tried to rein in either area—go on a diet or set a budget—the result was I felt pinched, like I was trying to squeeze my life into a small container, which then made me resentful. When the focus turned to what I could not eat and what I could not buy, it didn't take long for that rebellious part of me to say, "Who says that's all you can have? Why are you doing this to yourself? Your life is meant to be made of bigger things!"
When I finally stopped doing to myself what I would never have done to another, I knew I needed help and a regular plan. In both my finances and weight, there were helpful organizations I turned to; and no surprise, the first thing they did was set budgets, both caloric and financial. Again, I felt pinched. But this time, instead of allowing the rebellion, I submitted—again and again, daily—to the limitations of the budget. The result, after years of submission to a plan not my own, was freedom. I stopped saying to myself, "That's all you can have." The phrase had become instead, "Wow, that's all you really need."
This is why we fast. We fast to come, finally, to the place where we realize we have all that we really need. Alise Barrymore states in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women that fasting "reminds us how vulnerable and dependent we are on God." And yet in that dependence, we realize the sufficiency of God in our lives.
We realize the daily bread in the Lord's Prayer is the same Jesus, the Bread of Life of John 6:35. We can trust Jesus when he says, "Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again."
Our exercise of the discipline of fasting filters into our whole lives, into other disciplines such as stewardship, submission, Sabbath-keeping, and worship. As Dallas Willard writes in the Spirit of the Disciplines, "Since food has the pervasive place it does in our lives, the effects of fasting will be diffused throughout our personality. It the midst of all our needs and wants, we experience the contentment of the child that has been weaned from its mother's breast." When we master, with God's help, control of our appetite, making it yield to its Maker, we master so many other areas that fight for control as well.
We find encouragement for the need for fasting in both Old and New Testaments. In Leviticus 23:32, when the Lord talks about the Sabbath, he says, "And on that day you must deny yourselves." Included perhaps is the idea of denying of food or perhaps a limited diet. And I love the example we have in Acts of the early church. In Acts 13:1–3, Luke reports the following:
Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called "the black man"), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them." So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
Fasting and worship, happening together—fasting that brings us to our dependence on God, and then leads us to praise the all-sufficiency of God. What a beautiful picture for us as we yield our lives daily to God.
We fast also "for the sake of intense spiritual activity" as Richard Foster says in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women. There are times when the need is critical, and our most urgent need for God's intervention can only be expressed by fasting. The Bible gives us several examples. In Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh commands the entire town to fast with the hope that "perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us" (Jonah 3:9). In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat directs the people of Judah to fast and seek deliverance from the armies marching toward them. And in Deuteronomy 9:18–19, Moses reminds the people: "I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger. I feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you." When times of crisis come to us, already having a habit of fasting means we can reflexively move into a posture of dependence on God. In the Bible, when the need is great, men and women don't seem to spend much time wringing their hands, asking "Why me? Why now?" or finding another solution. They seem to immediately move to fast and pray.
The same response is available to us. In plenty and in want, in worship and in need, fasting is part of the way we express our dependence on God.
* * * _____________________________________________________________________
"Fasting is a critical discipline for the life of the spirit—through fasting we respond in obedience to God's urgings, we come to know ourselves (and our sins) more fully, and we turn to God in complete reliance as we seek his will in difficult situations." —Richard J. Foster, "Why Fast?" Everyday Matters Bible for Women _____________________________________________________________________
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As you study this chapter, consider your own faith life. How much of it seems to be about restricting your actions? How much is about realizing what you need? _____________________________________________________________________
1. In his reflection in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women, Ben Patterson says that fasting gave him permission "to not have to live on the level of my appetites," and when the fast ended, his biggest fear was "I might lose the freedom I'd gained." What about you? What could you find freedom from by fasting?
2. Consider the passages of John 6:35, Deuteronomy 8:3, and Matthew 4:1–2. How does the image of being fed by the word of God help you undertake a fast?
3. Think of a time of intense spiritual activity in your life. What was your response?
4. What are the reasons you might fast?
5. How do you see the spiritual disciplines of fasting and worship working together to strengthen your faith? Do you think one discipline helps with the other?
6. In Leviticus 23:32 God required the Israelites, as part of their Sabbath, to "deny themselves." What would you deny yourself of to achieve a complete rest?
* * * _____________________________________________________________________
"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison by apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the primetime dribble of triviality we drink in every night." —John Piper _____________________________________________________________________
Points to Ponder
The practice of fasting is new to many of us. Because it's a spiritual discipline, we want to get it right. We want a list to follow. Though there are different kinds of fasts discussed in Scripture, we would be better off stopping ourselves from this line of thinking altogether.
• First, reflect on the why: Why do people fast?
• What benefit can it have for you?
Prayer
O Lord, you are the source of all I have, all I want, and all I need. Today let me see the world with your eyes. Let me know my true dependence on you and your trustworthiness.
Add your prayer in your own words.
Amen.
Put It into Practice
This week, ask a few people you trust and admire about their experiences with fasting. Why do they fast? What did their fast consist of? Jot down your own reflections after discussing.
Take-away Treasure
God daily provides all we need. This week, consider all the ways you can change your thoughts and words from statements of scarcity (all I can have) to contentment (all I need).
If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
CHAPTER 2When Should We Fast?
Seeking God in Ordinary and Extraordinary Times
Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
and the cattle barns are empty,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
able to tread upon the heights.
Habakkuk 3:17
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For this study, read Habakkuk 3. _____________________________________________________________________
My few attempts at fasting thus far have been inspired but undisciplined. I would read a book or hear a message that moved me, emotionally at least, to want the experience of a fast—a spiritual high point, an epiphany, and a sense of being closer to God. So I would decide the next day to go without food, and by mid-morning my only focal point was food and coffee. By lunch the fast was abandoned.
In hindsight, I can see the many ways my approach was doomed to failure. I wasn't seeking God. I was seeking an experience, using fasting as a magic key to open a door to a different relationship with God, some sort of "insider's" world. It was the very kind of thing Paul warned the Colossians about, reminding them it is Christ alone who saves, not additional experiences of Christ, that "in him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). I also wasn't prepared because I wasn't in the habit of denying myself. I had a twenty-first-century American body used to getting its full caloric needs met each and every day.
Throughout Scripture as we read about people fasting, it's good to remember two things. First, on any given day, the Israelites were eating less and leaner food than we tend to. In his book Jesus and the Gospels, New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg writes that 70 percent of the population lived at a level we would consider poverty. They knew hunger as a companion in ways we do not, so their bodies started, of necessity, from a more disciplined place. Second, they fasted regularly. When the Bible mentions fasting, early readers would know, and would have experienced, that these were not the only times of fasting. There were the recorded times, but as Frederica Mathewes-Green notes in her article "Fasting Like the Early Church?" in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women, both the Jews and early Christians fasted twice a week.
In church history early Christians made it a habit to fast together.... The Didache reminds believers that the Jews fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays.... But the Didache does not say, "So avoid that fasting foolishness, because we don't need it." No, this earliest church-discipline text instructs that Christians should fast as well, but on Wednesdays (the day of Judas's betrayal) and Fridays (the day of the Crucifixion).
Fasting, basically, was happening all the time in the Bible. And why not? In the most immediate way, it reminds us how dependent we are on God's provision. And in a way, it does unlock a mystery about God, but not the one I was seeking. Like all the disciplines, it points us fully to the pre-eminence of God in our lives. And by doing so, fasting offers us freedom from being our own gods.
Scripture as well records several events that compelled God's people to fast. As Alise Barrymore notes in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women:
In the Scriptures people often fasted purposefully—with a specific reason in mind. For example, people would fast when someone was experiencing private affliction, such as David who fasted when his child was ill (2 Samuel 12:15–17), and when danger was approaching, such as when Esther, along with all the Jews in Persia, fasted as she prepared for her dangerous meeting with King Xerxes (Esther 4:15–16). Other reasons people fasted were the ordination of ministers (Acts 13:2–3); confession of sin (1 Samuel 7:6; Nehemiah 9:1–2); seeking humility (Psalm 35:13); to discern God's will and direction (Ezra 8:21–23); to seek healing (Isaiah 58:6–8); to request God's intervention (2 Chronicles 20:3); in obedience to the direction of a leader (Jonah 3:6–10).
According to the Bible, we fast both in ordinary and extraordinary times.
* * * _____________________________________________________________________
"The purpose of fasting is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, in order that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal things." —Ole Hallesby _____________________________________________________________________
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As you study this chapter, don't be surprised to find a part of you agreeing in theory to the idea of fasting but resistant to the actual practice. Stop and allow yourself to consider why it's so difficult to fast. _____________________________________________________________________
1. Perhaps you, too, see the wisdom of fasting as a regular discipline. Look at your weekly schedule—are there one or two days best suited for you to try a modified fast?
2. How often does your church encourage fasting? Are there others within your body of believers who can gather to encourage one another in this practice?
3. Richard Foster writes, "We fast because there's an urgent need. Sometimes drastic situations demand a drastic response, such as intense fasting as part of our prayer for a crisis or difficulty. A spiritually disciplined person will know when a situation requires the intense supplication of fasting." Has there been a time (or times) in your life where you felt driven to fast? What was your urgent need? Do you feel fasting helped?
4. There can be many purposes for a fast other than an urgent situation. What are other reasons for fasting? What could be your reason?
5. Read Psalm 35 in its entirety. Within the full context of the psalm, when did David fast and why? In what other ways did he express himself in this psalm?
6. In her article "Rest and Self-Denial?" in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women, Kelli Trujillo suggests other things we can fast from, such as sexual expression, makeup, or "screen time" as we call it—anything with a screen, from TV to computers to tablets. Are there fasts other than food you might consider?
* * * _____________________________________________________________________
"Those which were figures [in the Old Testament] of future things have passed away, what they signified being accomplished. But the utility of fasting is not done away with in the New Testament; but it is piously observed, that fasting is always profitable both to the soul and body." —St. Leo _____________________________________________________________________
Points to Ponder
Part of fasting is training your body to be subject to the will, preparing it to be used as part of your worship and service to God. While we don't only fast, it is one of the tools we can use to place ourselves in a posture of dependence.
• Write down some times in which you've needed training—sports, work skills, perhaps other spiritual disciplines.
• How can the lessons you've learned in those areas be helpful to you as you prepare yourself for fasting?
* * * _____________________________________________________________________
"Food is ultimately not about food, but about God. The meaning of hunger—indeed, of all desire—is to point us to God." —Ben Patterson _____________________________________________________________________
Prayer
Your steadfast love and provision for me, Lord, never end. I want to stay in a posture of dependence and gratitude every day, not just once in a while. May my habits and practices today keep me ever mindful of your care.
Add your prayer in your own words.
Amen.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Everyday Matters Bible Studies for Womenâ?"Fasting by Hendrickson Publishers. Copyright © 2014 Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Copyright,Holy Habits,
Introduction,
Chapter 1. Why Should We Fast? Seeking Less in a Life of Too Much,
Chapter 2. When Should We Fast? Seeking God in Ordinary and Extraordinary Times,
Chapter 3. How Should We Fast? Seeking More of God,
Chapter 4. When the Need Is Great: "Everyone Who Seeks, Finds",
Leader's Guide,
Other Titles,