“How Often Do You Fast?” –A Question to Make Christians Uncomfortable
Are you looking for a way to shut down a conversation at church? Ask your casual acquaintances how many times a month they fast and watch them squirm.
As the Muslim month of fasting approaches, this topic will come up in conversations with Muslims. I have gotten out my copy of the excellent book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald S. Whitney, to reread the chapter on fasting.
Christians fast and engage in other disciplines to pursue godliness (1 Timothy 4:7). But bring up the topic of fasting and a great many Christians will immediately start explaining why they don’t.
Yesterday I met with my Muslim friends and we talked about different beliefs and practices regarding fasting. Of course, there are differences between our fasting and theirs, but I had to admit that, at least among the majority of my Christain friends and acquaintances, fasting is not a discipline we frequently engage in.
When Jesus talked about fasting in the Sermon on the Mount, he spoke about fasting immediately after instructions on prayer and assumed that Christians would fast. He addressed the topic with the words, “When you fast,” not “If you fast.” (Matt. 6:16-18)
I remember my first attempt at fasting in high school. It ended sometime after school with a headache-induced binge on a Payday candy bar and Lay's potato chips. I had failed. But what I had failed was more of an endurance test than a spiritual exercise. A biblical fast has a purpose. Fasting involves not just abstaining from food or other resources or activities dear to us but is always paired with another activity. For example in Acts 13:2-3, worship and prayer accompanied fasting.
Will you join with me in exploring the topic of fasting this month? Here are suggestions how:
- Do a word study and pay attention to how the words fast and fasting are used in the Bible. Notice when and why God’s people fast.
- Read Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, especially the chapter on fasting.
- Do a search on the topic of fasting on this site and come up with some additional material to expand your thinking. Get started with this link: https://bible.org/question/what-does-bible-say-about-fasting
- Put what you are learning into practice. Participate in the discipline of fasting this month. Leave a comment about your experience.
Beth Barron
Beth Barron and her husband have worked cross-culturally for decades, first in the Middle East and now in the U.S. She teaches English to refugees and uses her writing skills to advocate for them. Beth enjoys writing, biking, vegetable gardening and connecting heart to heart with other women. She is involved in her church's External Focus ministry. She and her husband have three adult children, two daughters-in-love and three grandsons. Beth graduated from Rice University in Houston, attended Dallas Theological Seminary and is committed to life-long learning.
4 Comments
Sarah Bowler
🙂
Great overview and good suggestions! Thanks for sharing!
Alex Bane
Fasting
Matthew 6:16-18. Fasting is not a contest or competition.
It is a private matter solely between the Christians and God. Fasting is a choice not a command. No one has any authority from God to drag any Christian by the scruff of the neck and dictate that they. There are instances where the church fasted as a whole under certain circumstances.
How presumptuous to think that God's people have to account to you regarding fasting.
Sandra Glahn
Give an account?
Alex, I don't see where you got the idea that the writer expects people to give account to her regarding fasting. Jesus assumed his disciples would pray, fast, and give. And the writer raised some good questions about the fasting part of those acts. If I wrote a post on prayer and raised some questions, would you think I expected people to give account to me about their prayer lives?
Beth Barron
Clarification
Alex,
I'm so glad you commented so that I could clarify that my intent was not for you to report to me, but that as believers we might share what we are learning in order to build one another up.
There is so much to learn on the topic beyond what I shared in my brief blog. One passage that takes the topic in a very different direction is Isaiah 58:1-10, where we learn that at this time in the nation of Israel, the kind of fast God desired was to feed the hungry and oppressed, to clothe the naked and to provide shelter to the oppressed.
Thanks for your input. Blessings to you, Alex.
Yours in Him,
Beth Barron