Lent Day 24
For 23 days now we have either hinted at or told you to sacrifice something to be able to focus on the events that leads up to Jesus’ resurrection, most call this, Easter Sunday. In the Bible, fasting is just a normal thing that people did from time to time. See Matthew 16:16-17. I think fasting is a spiritual discipline that has been lost in Christian culture. The Muslims do it every year during the Holiday of Ramadan, to hopefully gain God’s attention. Spoiler alert! God’s attention is already on us.
Let me tell you about my most memorable experience on fasting. I was working at a church and three elders, and I, decided to fast for three days. We would not eat and instead of eating we would spend that time in prayer and reading scripture with the hopes that God would tell us what to do next in the church. (There happened to be a power struggle going on.) At the end of the fast, God did not speak to us as much as he spoke to me. I did not hear God’s audible voice, but when I woke up the morning after the fast, it was crystal clear that I needed to resign from my position at that church and look for work elsewhere. So, I did. It was not the answer I was looking for, but in hindsight, God knew what he was doing and I did not.
Fasting really needs to be a part of our lives on a regular basis. The purpose of fasting is not to earn God’s love or favor, but to more deeply surrender to it. So how do you fast? Let me give you a few guidelines.
- Give yourself to prayer. Replace the time that you would spend deciding, selecting, cooking, and eating food, and replace that time with prayer. It is this more focused communion with God that produces some of fasting’s best fruit.
- Don’t make a show of it. Fast in private. Pride in fasting robs fasting of its spiritual benefit. Seek God; don’t seek the approval of others for seeking God in this way.
- Bathe yourself in God’s Word. Replacing your eating schedule will also give you more time for actual Scriptural meditation. Fill you mind with God’s Word until you just naturally speak scripture into others.
- Make sure you are ready. Make sure you are physically, financially, and situationally prepared for whatever fast, for whatever time period, you are about to undertake.
- Be quiet before the Lord. Since fasting is about ceasing activity, don’t replace it with activity. Rather, wait on the Lord. And as you wait, remember that the wait is not about what you might get from the Lord, but more importantly what you become as you wait.
- Confess what has been revealed. Fasting is a way to fight the spiritual blindness that affects us all. So be ready to confess new areas of sin, weakness, and failure that God has revealed as you have fasted.
- Make a new commitment. At the end of your fast, think about where God is calling you to new commitments of faith and discipleship where you live and work every day.
- Be thankful. God is not finished with you yet!
So, fast this Lenten season. Receive God’s welcome to fight for your heart and to learn to rest in the grace of your Savior more fully and more deeply. You will be glad you did.