...But WHEN you fast...

06/04/2009 -

Jesus had a spiritual secret that He used to sustain Himself during particularly difficult times in which the rigors of life and ministry were especially draining. It wasn’t something that He made a big deal about. It wasn’t something that He made a central point of His ministry. Nevertheless, He did not shy away from direct teaching about it, especially when this practice became the subject of controversy. It’s rarely something we talk about today (we practice it even less). What was it? Fasting.

Jesus’ most notable fast was during this desert temptation recorded in both Matthew and Luke. Both
accounts happen to take place in the fourth chapters of each gospel. Here we see Jesus preparing for His life of ministry. Yet incredibly, instead of fueling up, He fuels down. He drops His dependence on earthy sustenance, and increases his caloric intake of the Word of God.

During one crucial moment of temptation from Satan, the devil challenges Him to create His own bread using His divine powers as the Son of God. He refuses, offering instead what some may choose to adopt as a life principle: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). At other points in His ministry, Jesus downplays fasting, essentially stating, “Do it, but don’t make a big deal about it” (that’s my paraphrase of Matthew 6:16-18). Then he says something that we skip over often, “But WHEN you fast…” (NIV, direct quote, emphasis mine). Did you catch that?

Jesus taught with the assumption that fasting would if fact be a normal spiritual discipline in the Christian life. His purpose was not to discourage fasting, but rather to give guidelines for the attitude of the heart. For the early church too, fasting was considered not merely a formal part of their spiritual life, but more than that, a formative time. It was done when the church was called by God to either great discernment, times of deliberation, or the commissioning of mission workers. Consider Acts 14:23, “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (ESV).

Fasting is a gift of God, a tool of spiritual formation, by which we deprive ourselves of all human temptations and inclinations, so that we may be filled with the Spirit in greater measure, and thereby become more sensitive to His call and direction. In this crucial time of economic challenge, perhaps this might be a moment when you would consider emptying yourself from your normal human dependencies in order that you may be filled in a fuller measure with an understanding of God’s will.

For some, a fast can be a simple as skipping a single lunch break to read the Word. Others may consider fasting for a whole day or more. The time period is not essential. Don’t try anything that would hurt you. And remember, there are specific times in our lives when the people of God must be especially given over to prayer and submission to the will of God. For Faith Church, this may be one of those times.

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