Fasting (Part II)

Hi, this is Dave Scherrerrer, and welcome to Kingdom Offerings. This is the site where 100 Fold Ministries presents our podcast, and today we're continuing our series on the disciplines of the kingdom, the disciplines that move our kingdom expressions forward in our lives. The last time that we were here together, we got started on a conversation about fasting, the discipline of fasting, and I really believe that fasting as a spiritual discipline is really important, but it's also largely become a lost art, and it's not really a very American type of topic. We're all about excess in most every way of our lives. The food served in restaurants offer you more food than any one person can possibly eat. Cars are oversized and overpowered. Our vacations sometimes tend towards the luxurious. Our homes have become too often a testament to our financial success. We're not used to, here in America, going without. Hunger does happen here in the United States, but not like in some parts of the world, and it's not usually about a general lack of available food. It's some other problem, but with all that said, fasting is weirdly faddish right now. There are some people that go on fasts for dietary cleansing, and now there's even a growing tradition to put into our weekly schedule a daily fast. I was reading about this, and I saw that alternate day fasting and some time restricted feeding protocols have been known to improve the lifespan and the metabolic health of things like yeast and worms and mice. And so I guess people think maybe it does us some good as well. I'm not sure I like being compared to a worm. And the other thing kind of to keep in mind is that this unbroken access to food that we have is an incredibly new, relatively historical development. Much of the world still isn't afforded the luxury of a home freezer that makes constant food a possibility. And one writer that I was noting said that round-the-clock access to food may be contributing to contemporary obesity. I don't think we have to do an expensive study on that idea. We just have to ask my refrigerator at two o'clock in the morning if my ice cream snack is a good idea. So fasting for dietary reasons has become a bit of a thing in the United States here in the last three to five years. Okay, now with that being said, that kind of fasting is not what I'm talking about. Fasting as a kingdom discipline for spiritual reasons is not about our physical health, but of course it's about our spiritual health. And spiritual fasting is really a very old practice. 1500 BC there's evidence of Hindu practicing fasting. Buddhists fast in an effort to achieve enlightenment. There have been fasting through centuries for millennial in India, China, the Middle East, the ancient world. And so this is not a new idea, so it's not surprising even that fasting is an ancient Jewish and Christian tradition or value. In Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount we get some instructions on this discipline of fasting. Jesus says, 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, Jesus talking, I say to you, they have received their reward. See 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. So for this podcast I just want to look at some specifics on fasting on this ancient practice in a 21st century manner. So let's play the who, what, when, where, why, how game on this topic of fasting. Okay, let's go ahead and talk about why. We've already said that it's not for physical dietary reasons. And with this teaching of Jesus that we just read in mind, it's clearly not showing off your spiritual muscles either. It's for focusing on God and his kingdom purposes. We'll talk about this why thing more in our next podcast because knowing what God is expecting in our fasting exercise really flips the script on having a successful spiritual fast. So it's about God. It's about connecting to God. But let's talk a little bit more about what, what is a fast that might help answer that why question a little bit. What is true is that fasting is a way to self-examine about how we might be too connected to this world. It's a spiritual health test. If we become connected to food in a worldly manner, fasting is about the only way that you can discover that. You don't know how badly you're connected until you take it away. So not to change the subject, but to illustrate, I'm currently on a dieting fast from sugar and high carb foods because I'm a diabetic and my A1c is climbing. And it's been a couple of months that I've been on this diet and my craving for sugar is just now beginning to give way. Now don't offer me a donut because I probably will go ahead and do that, but the point being is that I could not tell how addicted to sugar that I was until I turned off that fairly constant sugar faucet. God doesn't offer fasting as an option to be mean. It's, it's a way of measuring not the depth of our faith so much as demonstrating how things in this world can make our faith more difficult by being overly connected to the world. Let's go ahead and talk about now what do I fast. Let's talk about that for a little bit because when speaking about fasting as called on in the scriptures, it's almost always about food or fasting food and water. Those are almost always the only things being considered. Interesting, there is a verse in Paul's writings that instructs married couples not to withhold sex from one another except perhaps briefly for spiritual reasons. A kind of fast from spiritual intimacy that's found in 1st Corinthians 7. But now here in the 21st century, it's not just about food. We find that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of places that we might be tempted to be excessively connected to the world in an unhealthy manner. The world is so much more worldly now here in the 21st century. It's possible for us now, as I am doing, to fast from sugar or certain types of foods that you think are unhealthy. But you can fast from any number of things, including alcoholic beverages. I know that that's become a bit of a fad as well, fasting from, from beer and alcohol. But we can fast from smoking, from TV, from social media, from sports. We could, we could fast from cooking shows or the shopping network. For some of us, giving up Amazon shopping for 40 days might be a really healthy experiment. Maybe when you start back up, you can think about how you're spending your time and money on things that are perhaps passing away. And I know that feels like meddling. Let's, let's talk about something else. Some people like to start a good habit, a new healthy discipline, at the same time that they're starting a fast. Perhaps a co-discipline of prayer or a discipline of generosity or just something as simple as I'm going to do a little exercising. I'm going to read on the day that I fast. I'm going to spend my time learning a musical instrument instead of having lunch or perhaps a foreign language. Maybe I'm going to book some social events for relationships that are, that are in need of healing or time. Okay, that's my, my why and what. Let's talk about when. In the Old Testament, the only commanded fast was on the Day of Atonement. That, that phrase in that verses of Numbers and Leviticus, afflict yourselves on the Day of Atonement, appears to be an old Hebrew idiom that means to fast. And other than this, there are no commands to fast in the Old Testament, nor are there really in the New Testament as well. But that doesn't mean that people in the Old and New Testament didn't fast. Clearly not. Jesus expects it. Matthew 6 says quite obviously when you fast. But the simple answer is, is that the time to fast is when God tells you that it's time to fast. I have at times in my life made fasting a regular, essentially quarterly event in my life. And that has been meaningful, but fasting must never become a burden and it mustn't become an obligation. Okay, let's talk about how. How do I fast? And I would just want to say I'd start small. I, I started small on my very first fast. I was, I was 19 years old and I was hungry every day before I woke up in the morning. And so my first fast, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know the spiritual reasons for fasting, and I got grumpy and I gave up fasting halfway through that day. I started wrong, it ended wrong, and now thankfully since then I have learned that fasting can become a trusted discipline in my life. So how? Try skipping lunch. That's a good way, a suggested way of starting a practice of fasting. Try that, see how it goes. Try it again and maybe a different way. Maybe fast a dinner. A dinner is a little bit harder because you're fasting not only for dinner, but now that fast includes everything from maybe say 1 o'clock all the way to 8 o'clock the next morning. That's a more industrious time fast. So think those things through as you start your fast. I, in my early stages of fasting, including a low-salt tomato juice or a V8 type of juice on some of my longer fasts, my 3 to 5 day fasts, maybe have some water with electrolytes that are in that water, might be helpful to keep you hydrated and keep your minerals up. I would say do talk to your doctor on the how basis, on the how question. Do talk to your doctor before a longer fast or a fast without water. I did a 4 day food and water fast one Easter, maybe about 8 years ago, and I think I should have talked to my doctor about that. There were no complications, but at this point in time in my life, at my age now, I would not do that again without a medical consult. And the answer to who seems obvious. The who is you, who's fasting. But I want to open that idea up a little bit because most of my, many of my, really successful fasts have been done in community, when I have partnered with a friend or a family member so that there's encouragement and accountability in my fast. Those are great ways to pray and fast your way through extended discipline of fasting. All right, we're going to give one more podcast to this kingdom discipline of fasting. I'd love to hear from you about your experiences if you decide to try a fast, skip a lunch or something, and do seek a word from the Lord before you just kick into fasting. He will help you understand whether this is right for you right now. So check in with us at 100 Fold Ministries if you decide to give it a try. We'd love to hear about your experience and get that update. Until that time, peace to you and peace to you in your exploration of the disciplines of the kingdom. This is Dave Scherrerrer, this is 100 Fold Ministries, and this is Kingdom Offerings.