Learning About Fasting

"Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35

Yesterday at church our Pastor gave a message on fasting. I have to admit, I wasn't that thrilled about the idea of a message on fasting. For the most part, I guess you could say that I've been an anti-faster. Every time I hear about someone fasting I get...defensive. I know nutrition. I understand nutrition and my body, and I know what makes me tick. I know that I need to eat a protein with every meal or I get a headache. I know that if I skip a meal I get weak and shaky. I know that if I eat a sweet and sugary breakfast (like donuts) that later in the morning I will be super tired and feel like I want a nap. So fasting, where you do not eat for a period of time has always seemed like such a bad idea to me.

So last week, in anticipation of the coming sermon, I decided to fast for a day. I had heard a friend once say, in defense of fasting, that it says in the Bible to fast, and if we weren't going to follow God's directions to fast, that we might as well just give up altogether. If we weren't going to follow all his directions, it wasn't worth it. So I decided that I needed to see what fasting was about for myself and chose a day to fast completely.

The first thing I will mention is that it didn't take long in the morning for me to decide I was hungry. It seemed like I was hungry the second I woke up instead of an hour or two later. I did allow myself one cup of coffee in the morning, but the rest of the day it was only water. My stomach rumbled All. Day. Long. As someone who has dieted in the past, I can't begin to describe how unusual that was. When dieting, I learned to just ignore that hunger, and eventually, the rumbling would stop. But with fasting... I knew the enemy wanted to defeat me before I really got going. So I was logical about fasting. I fixed food for the kids that wasn't appealing to me, that was something I wouldn't want to eat, because I wanted to avoid all the temptations. When I felt like I just had to eat something, I would close my eyes for a few minutes and thank God for living in a nation of abundance, where my family doesn't ever need to know the feeling of being hungry for days at a time.

I spent quite a bit of time praying that day, I also read my Bible more than usual, and I actually got a lot done as well. On a normal day, when I feel like being busy, I head to the kitchen and cook something up. Fasting meant I needed to stay away from the kitchen, so I got quite a few tasks done that I had been holding off on. And then in the evening, after I tucked the kids into bed, I spent my time with God and I felt that I had successfully made it through the day of fasting. I'm not typically an evening muncher, so even though I was still hungry, I was able to fully ignore it and spend my time with God.

So. Was my time with God any different because I fasted? Was fasting all that? Well, I didn't find my time in the evening any sweeter than normal, it was still wonderful, fasting or not. I do think I spent a little more time in prayer throughout the day than normal, but honestly, not that much more since I spend a bit of time praying throughout the day anyways. I didn't get the headaches that I expected throughout the day, so that was good. But let me tell you, the following morning I had a doozy. I was on my way to a migraine. Thankfully I was able to stave it off with some ibuprofen and a small bowl of oatmeal, but I spent a good deal of the morning not really functioning well. This was where I was puzzled, because I didn't feel any kind of revelation during my day of fasting, and if I then had to spend a day recovering, was fasting really a good idea for me?

Then yesterday during our Pastor's sermon, I heard a revelation. Fasting doesn't necessarily mean food. Think about it, think about the people who really can't fast food- like the diabetics who can't miss a meal or even a snack or their body gets all wacky. How do these people follow God's command of fasting? The answer is that they fast something else. They stop watching TV for a period of time, they stop using the Internet for a period of time. They abstain from coffee for a week, or they stop doing their morning workout and instead spend the time in prayer. It really was a revelation to me! Here I had been fasting, I just didn't know it! It was a definite light bulb moment for me because I was kind of unhappy about my day of fasting experience, it just wasn't what I was expecting, but the fasting I really have been doing has been an experience.

So the point is that I am no longer afraid of fasting, nor am I against the idea of fasting. In fact, I say fast away! But choose carefully what you want to fast, it should be something that enables you to spend more time with God. Maybe you need to stop playing video games or computer games. Maybe you need to turn off the TV or the radio. Maybe you want to fast reading books other than the Bible, or maybe you need to fast going to a chat room or bulletin board online. Then again, maybe food is the ideal means of fasting for you. I have learned that it wasn't for me, so if you feel discouraged after a time of fasting, maybe try again,but fasting something else. With time, I think that you will find the area of your life that gets you closer to God when you give it up for a while. I know I have, and the growth I've been experiencing has been totally worth it.

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6:16-18