I closed the last post by pointing to Isaiah 58, the chapter labeled "True Fasting" in many Bibles. In it, God calls Israel out on their empty fasting - they were simply doing a ritual and it had no effect on their hearts. This was evidenced in their actions - fighting, exploitation, etc. They were fasting as a duty or ritual, disconnecting it from their hearts and actions and expecting God to hear them based on the fact that they were performing this outward action.
So the first thing fasting is not is this: Fasting is not empty ritual. It's not simply an action we perform. Fasting is an act of humility and a proclamation of dependence on God. Isaiah 58 indicates that this humbling of ourselves should be accompanied with an examination of our attitudes and actions, and repentance (a turning from evil and sin). The Israelites in Isaiah 58 seemed eager for God to come near them (v. 2), but their actions showed otherwise. They failed to acknowledge their brokenness and rebellion. So their fasting was pointless. In his book "Fasting", Jentezen Franklin says this: "You should enter a fast seriously, having repented of any known sins."
Fasting is also not a demonstration of our own super-spirituality. If our mindset as we fast is along the lines of, "Look how spiritual I am because I'm abstaining from food for a whole week! God will surely see and bless me!", we've got it all wrong. That's pride, not humility. Jesus addresses this attitude in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18. The Pharisee comes before God boasting of his "accomplishments" - saying that he's "not like other men" like the tax collector next to him, that he fasts twice a week and tithes. But the tax collector approaches God humbly, asking for mercy, confessing that he's a sinner. He's the one who leaves justified. We can't use fasting as a way to show God how great we are. That's just ridiculous.
There's a danger or not only approaching God this way, but people as well. Jesus says in Matthew 6:16-18, "when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others...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." (italics mine) Beware of these subtle inclinations of our hearts, and take them captive, turning them over to the Lord and receiving His grace.
Fasting is not a means of simply getting what we want. Sometimes when we fast, we may fast "for something" - for revival, for the healing of a loved one, etc. But there is a subtle danger hidden here. We can begin to view God as a vending machine and fasting as a stack of quarters. If we feed the machine enough quarters, we'll get the snack we want. God is not Santa Claus. And we shouldn't approach Him that way. When we fast and pray, we do so expectantly, but ultimately God brings the results in His will and timing. So we can't fast with the thought that we're filling the right formula that God will honor. That's essentially what Israel was doing in Isaiah 58 - performing a ritual or formula and expecting God to honor it. But that's not the way God operates - He sees the heart, not our outward actions.
Fasting is not dieting. On a longer fast you might lose weight, but this is clearly not the reason to do it!
Fasting is not simply abstaining from something. That's just self-starvation. When we fast, we don't just not eat or not watch TV or not do whatever. We intentionally abstain from those things so that we can seek God and hunger after Him. We use the time we'd normally eat or watch TV or surf the web to seek God, to pray, read, worship, etc. Often these longings for whatever we're fasting from can give us sensitivity to our deeper longing for God. In a mysterious way, when we fast we become very sensitive to God and are often able to engage Him and hear Him more strongly. And we can take the hunger pangs - for food or for whatever we're fasting from - and use them as reminders of our hunger for God and reminders to seek Him. Whenever I fast, I try to pray whenever I feel that pain of hunger in my gut. And often it subsides too!
These are a few of the things that fasting is not - I'm sure given time we could come up with more. So as we enter this fast together, let these be reminders of how not to fast.
And again, let me challenge you to join in fasting next week. Go before the Lord and ask how He might have you engage in it, if at all. Soon Jon will post on this blog about various types of fasting. Read over it and invite God to show you how you might take part. We want to seek God together for personal transformation and revival, and for revival and awakening on our campuses. We need Him desperately. Please join us in seeking Him and hungering after Him together, as a body of believers!
--Jason
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