Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 3

The word for fast in Hebrew literally means to cover the mouth.  Therefore, a fast has to do with limiting your food intake in some way.  You may choose to remove other things (cell phones, devices, video games, TV watching, limiting online time, etc.) from your life as a way to have more time to draw nearer to God, but technically, a fast has to do with depriving the body of food in some way.

Types of Fasting

There are many ways you may choose to fast. Following is a short list:

Total fast: You drink only water for a specified time period.  If you need to, you may drink fruit juice mixed with water, or some broth.

Partial fast:

o  Remove one or two meals from your day and invest that time seeking the Lord.

o  Remove items from your diet.  This could mean you have three meals a day, but you refrain from luxury foods like meat, dairy, sugars, desserts, or caffeine. 

o  Daniel Fast: This was the fast that the Lord lead me to engage in.  Found in the book of Daniel, I drank only water during the day and ate vegetables and fruits for dinner with the family.  A very good resource for this type of fast can be found at http://www.vega-licious.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-the-daniel-fast/.

Let’s not get legalistic here!  This is between you and God.  If you are not sure about how to fast, ask Him.  Remember, fasting is a powerful way of growing in your intimacy with Jesus.  Fasting is not a way for you to earn a merit badge from the Almighty!

What You Can Expect When Fasting

If you choose a total or partial fast which greatly reduces your food intake, you can anticipate some of the following physical issues (I'm not a medical professional.  I'm simply speaking from experience):

Detox: Over the first couple of days your body will begin to expel toxins from its system.  You may experience headaches and backaches. This is normal and it should pass by day 6-7.

Bad Breath: You will notice a coating on your tongue and bad breath.  This is normal. Just brush your teeth and keep drinking water. Don't chew gum, as it doing so will trick you're body into being hungry.

Hunger pains: You are re-training your body and putting it into submission to your Spirit.  Your body will ask for food.  When it does, drink more water.

Faintness: With less caloric intake than usual, you may experience dizziness from time to time.  Don’t get up too quickly!  Take care of yourself.

Trouble focusing: No, fasting does not cause onset of ADHD, however, you may notice that it takes longer to do mental calculations or you may have trouble concentrating.  Again, this is normal.  Simply refocus and take care of yourself.

Tips for Fasting

1.   Drink lots of water.  You cannot drink too much water.  It is crucial that you stay hydrated, especially as you begin your fast. 

a.    A good rule of thumb is to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day.  For instance, if you weigh 180 lbs., then you should drink at least 90 oz. of water each day.

b.   I found room temperature water to be the best for my system.  Ice water is too shocking to a system without food.  Also, some recommend using filtered or even distilled water.  I used water from the kitchen tap.  See what works for you.

2.   Don’t drink coffee or tea.  Caffeine stimulates your nervous system when you are trying to give your body rest.  If you need a hot beverage, try hot water with a slice of lemon. Ahhh...refreshing!

3.   Don’t chew gum or use breath mints, as these will stimulate your appetite.

4.   Take walks.

5.   Conserve your strength and take care of yourself.

6.   Journal your experience.  What is God saying to you, teaching you?

7.   Obey whatever God speaks to you through his Word and prayer.

Devotional Activities to Accompany Fasting

Remember that fasting isn’t about being hungry and acting as if we are doing God a favor.  Fasting is a path to greater intimacy with God that must be coupled with Bible reading and prayer.  Read your Bible during this time.  God will speak to you through His Word in amazing and clear ways because as you fast, you are more spiritually sensitive to His leading.  You may choose to read through the Psalms and Proverbs, or through the Gospels.  Helpful Bible plans can be accessed at www.bible.com/reading-plans. 

Pray.  Seek the Lord.  Talk to Him often.  Keep a prayer journal.  Pray about a specific issues in your life or the lives of loved ones and record how God moves in those situations.  

Remember, this is precious time that you are given to devote to you Heavenly Father.  If you fast, but don't invest in seeking the Lord through Bible reading and prayer, then you'll just be a hungry, grumpy person with a headache.  Don't only deprive your body--feed your soul!  

Breaking Your Fast

End your fast gradually.  Do not eat solid foods immediately after a total fast.  Drink fruit juices, vegetable juices, broths and soft, easily digestible fruits and vegetables.  Stay away from meat for a while.  You may consider trying several small meals or snacks throughout the day.  Give your body time to get up and running again.  Don’t overdo.  Slowly reintroduce meat, poultry or fish at one meal per day until you feel you can handle more.

Some Final Thoughts

In his blog, my friend Dr. John Armstrong writes:

“We must never allow any experience to be our sole guide. Experience is the doorway through which we enter into the presence of God for ourselves. We must not just “think” about God, or develop a reasonable theology of God. We must even do more than read the Bible, as valuable as Bible reading is for us all. We must hunger to know the divine author. The point is this – get at the knowledge of God for yourself. Become a continuous learner and seek the Truth until you know the divine Logos for yourself. This happens through both hearing and responding to the written revelation of God but also through Christian experience of that living truth. These are merely two sides of the same coin” (ACT3 Weekly Blog, March 3, 2014).

We must hunger to know the divine author. Amen! 

May your fast lead you once again to the throne of grace. 

May you be filled to overflowing with His Presence.

May you hunger for God.

Blessings!

Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 2

So there I was in January-- listening to so many voices and trying so hard to keep all the plates spinning.  I knew that Jesus was inviting me to rest...to rest in Him in a way I had not previously known.  Jesus was inviting me to explore Him through fasting.  I had only ever fasted a couple days-- back in college!  Fasting was not a practice that I had ever seriously considered taking on, not that I was opposed to it, but more from the standpoint that I didn't see how it could fit into my life.  After all, I'm not some monk on a Greek island monastery, or a prophet in the wilderness.  I'm a regular guy.  I'm a father of 4 active children, a husband, a pastor of a (maybe too) busy church.  I just couldn't see how fasting could fit into my life.  

In any event, I knew that Jesus was calling me to it.  I couldn't shake the thought...and it thrilled me.  So I began preparing by reading.  As I read, I discovered that some Christians say that fasting is not an activity that followers of Jesus should participate in.  They say that since Jesus is resurrected, and the Kingdom of God has come, we are to rejoice and follow our King, which does not include fasting.  While I understand this view, I do not accept it for the simple reason that Jesus, Himself, seems to endorse the practice.  In Matthew 6:1, 16-18, Jesus teaches:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven… And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 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.”

Jesus solemnly warns that a fast, as well as giving and praying, must be done with pure motives and a right heart.  We fast for an audience of one, not to build the perception that we are super-Christians.  When our hearts are right, fasting draws us closer to the Lord.  After the warning, Jesus gives clear instructions about fasting.  Notice he says “when you fast, not “if you fast.” When you fast, don’t make a show of it.  Wash you face and do it for your Father in secret.  Jesus assumes that his followers will fast, though this activity is never recorded in the Gospels while Jesus is with them on the earth. 

Later in Matthew 9:14-17 we read:

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

When questioned why his disciples don’t fast like other Jews, Jesus declares that while He, the Bridegroom, is with them they rejoice and don’t fast, but when he is taken away, they will fast. What is Jesus talking about? What is the timeframe? His disciples will certainly feast after the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit will come and abide within them at Pentecost, but they will not feast with Jesus until the consummation when the Kingdom of God comes finally, totally and fully.  Believers fast in faith, knowing that Jesus has come, is raised and will come again.  We fast because the world is not yet right.  We fast because we know His goodness and yearn—hunger—for His presence. 

John Piper in his excellent book on fasting entitled, A Hunger for God, ends his exposition of this text from Matthew 9 by saying:

Is fasting Christian? It is if it comes from confidence in Christ and is sustained by the power of Christ and aims at the glory of Christ. Over every Christian fast should be written the words, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8). In fasting, as well as in all other privations, every loss is for the sake of “gaining Christ.” But this does not mean that we seek to gain a Christ we do not have. Nor does it mean that our progress depends on ourselves. Four verses later Paul makes plain the dynamics of the entire Christian life—including fasting: “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”

        This is the essence of Christian fasting: We ache and yearn—and fast—to know more and more of all that God is for us in Jesus. But only because he has already laid hold of us and is drawing us ever forward and upward in “all the fullness of God.”

        My prayer for the Christian church is that God might awaken in us a new hunger for himself—a new fasting. Not because we haven’t tasted the new wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it and long, with a deep and joyful aching of soul, to know more of his presence and power in our midst (pages 48-49).

Amen! I wanted to "know more of his presence and power!" Fasting lead me deeper into Christ.

Next time...the nuts and bolts of Christian fasting.

Unwinding the Spell of Want, Part 1

At the risk of sounding a little wacky to some of you...I need to share with you a life-changing part of my journey with Jesus over the past couple months.

After the first of the year, the Lord very clearly directed me to fast for 40 days.  I just knew I had to do it, but I had never done anything close to this before.  Honestly, I was fearful...as in terrified.

How would I prepare? 

What would fasting look like for our young family who has dinner together as often as we can? 

How would I get things done? 

What kind of fast would I do?

Where would God lead me?

What would He lead me to do?  

These questions, and more, flooded my mind.  Through all the questions, I knew one thing was very clear—I needed to fast and focus on God’s Word and His will for me.  There are so many voices that vie for our attention, but there is only one Voice that we need to hear…the voice of Jesus.

If you are a follower of Jesus and sense a hunger for God deep in your soul, if you need to unwind the spell of want in your life, then the next few blog posts will be for you.  I want to tell you about my experience of Jesus through fasting, and hopefully, you will be inspired to seek the face of God through fasting and prayer.  There is nothing like it.  

Over the next few posts, I will give a Biblical basis for Christian fasting, as well as some helps for fasting, itself.  

May we grow in our hunger for God!