Fasting Exemplified (Fasting, 3 of 3)
There’s more to a biblical fast than merely abstaining from food. Without a spiritual purpose for our fast, it is just a bad weightless plan or a one-dimensional exercise in self-control. Without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience about sheer willpower and endurance. Although the physical discomfort and hunger is unpleasant – perhaps even painful – it is important to feel some degree of hunger during your fast. Hunger is what helps you remember your spiritual purpose.
Scripture sets forth many purposes for fasting. Donald Whitney, in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life details ten major spiritual purposes for fasting and prayer. Take note of the range of usefulness a fast can have for your soul and consider how your current fast may draw upon other sorts of fasts.
1. To Strengthen Prayer. When Ezra was about to lead a group of exiles back to Jerusalem, he proclaimed a fast in order for the people to seek the Lord earnestly for safe passage. They were to face many dangers without military protection during their 900-mile journey. Their vulnerability meant this was no ordinary matter. “So, we fasted and implored our God for this,” says Ezra 8:23, “and he listened to our prayer.”
2. To Seek God’s Guidance. In Judges 20, the other 11 tribes of Israel prepared for way against the tribe of Benjamin. The soldiers gathered at Gibeah because of a shocking sin committed by the men of that Benjamite city. They sought the Lord before going into battle, and after losing the first two raids, sough the Lord a third time in prayer, with tears and “fasting that day until evening” (v.26). According to Acts 14:23, before Paul and Barnabas would appoint elders in the churches they founded, they first prayed with fasting to receive God’s guidance.
3. To Express Grief. After the Philistines killed King Saul and his sons in battle, the men of Jabesh Gilead walked all night to recover the bodies. After the burial, 1 Samuel 31:13 says they mourned when they “fasted seven days.” Second Samuel gives the response of David and his men when they heard the news: “Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his Jonathon…because they had fallen by the sword” (1:11-12).
4. To Seek Deliverance or Protection. After being notified that a vast army was coming against him, King Jehoshaphat “was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD” (2 Chronicles 20:3-4).
5. To Express Repentance and the Return to God. The Israelites expressed repentance through fasting in 1 Samuel 7:6 when they “drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, ‘We have sinned against the LORD.’” In Joel 2:12, the Lord specifically commanded His people to signify their repentance and their return to Him by fasting: “’Yet even now,’ declared the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’”
6. To Humble Oneself Before God. King Ahab, one of the most wicked men in Jewish history, eventually humbled himself before God and demonstrated his humility by fasting: “When Ahad heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring disaster upon his house’” (1 Kings 21:27-29).
7. To Express Concern for the Work of God. Nehemiah fasted and prayed when he heard that despite the return of many Jewish exiles to Jerusalem, the city still had not wall to defend it. In Nehemiah 1:3-4, he writes, they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” As soon as I heard these words I say down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
8. To Minister to the Needs of Others. Isaiah 58:3-4 reads, “Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked first. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” The people addressed here had complained to the Lord that they fasted and humbled themselves before Him, but He had not answered them. The reason He had not heard them was their disobedience. Their lives stood in hypocritical contrast to their fasting and praying. How powerful, then, is fasting when combined with a sincere desire to love and minister to one another.
9. To Overcome Temptation. A familiar Bible story for many is Jesus’ 40-day fast while in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil. Matthew 4:1-11 records this important example of the power of fasting (combined with study and meditation of God’s Word) when resisting sin. In the spiritual strength of the prolonged fast He was prepared to overcome a direct onslaught of temptation from Satan himself.
10. To Express Love and Worship to God. In Luke 2, there is an unforgettable woman, whose entire 84-years flash before us in three brief verses. Her name is Anna. The summary of her life is found in Luke 2:37: “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” Assuming she married as a young lady, this godly woman devoted at least half a century, “night and day,” to a worship of God characterized by “fasting and prayer.”
Before we fast, we must have a purpose, a biblical, God-centered purpose. But even in our best fasts we do not deserve what we desire, nor can we force God’s hand. That said, Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 provide all the confidence we need that, if done from the heart, our fast will accomplish what God wants it to. Jesus says…
“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.” (vv.17-18)
Partially adapted from Donald S. Whitney’s ‘Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.’