
Each of the spiritual disciplines help you get into the presence of God.
• From the standpoint of revival, John Piper call these three disciplines (worship, fasting, and prayer) the three-legged stool that props up revival that lasts.
• Jesus’ assumption that we would fast and the point of fasting >> Matthew 6:16-18 | 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.
• So, fasting is for all Christians. Let’s try to understand it and how it can be a part of our process of spiritual growth as well.
Do I need to fast?
• We live in a fallen and fading
// Cornelius Plantinga >> The early desert fathers believed that a person’s appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for righteousness. They spoil the appetite for God.
// John Piper >> The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.
• There is a time for celebration and there is a time for
// David Mathis >> Fasting is an exceptional measure, designed to channel and express our desire for God and our holy discontent in a fallen world.> // David Mathis >> It is a desperate measure, for desperate times, among those who know themselves desperate for God.
• So, do you want to grow in Christlikness? Do you have areas of temptation that are raging? Do you want to put yourself in a place to be more aware of God’s wisdom? Do you want sharpen the edge of your prayer life? Then, consider fasting.
What is fasting?
• At its simplest definition, fasting is
• Most biblical fasts were from food.
• Whether corporate or personal, fasting from a spiritual standpoint serves a number of purposes, but the personal benefits are greatest.
// Foster >> Once the primary purpose of fasting (to draw nearer to the heart of God) is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface.
// Piper >> What Augustine said was this: “For the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation.” In other words, we easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love is frequently put to the test, and we must show our preferences not merely with words but with sacrifice…Christian fasting is a test to see what desires control us.
Fast from anything that dulls your desire for God
// Martyn Lloyd-Jones >> fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose. (social media, married couples and sex in 1 Cor. 7, TV, news media, etc.)
• How should you start fasting?
- Enlist a
- Start
- Consider how it will affect
- Try different
- Fast from something other than
- Be ready for
Conclusion
// Macrina Wiederkehr >> Fasting makes me vulnerable and reminds me of my frailty. It reminds me to remember that if I am not fed I will die … Standing before God hungry, I suddenly know who I am. I am one who is poor, called to be rich in a way that the world does not understand. I am one who is empty, called to be filled with the fullness of God. I am one who is hungry, called to taste all the goodness that can be mine in Christ.
• With all that God has called us, doesn’t fasting and praying seem like the best means to pursue God’s will?