Fasting

What is the purpose of fasting? Most everyone knows what fasting is (purposefully depriving oneself of something, most commonly food), but what is its purpose? The principle of fasting comes from the Old Testament, when the Jews would fast to humble themselves before God in order that they might approach God in the case of the Levites (the tribe of the Jewish priests), or in order that God would hear their prayers. In both of these cases, the root reason for fasting is to clear the things away from one’s life that might distract one from God and possibly draw one’s praise away from God, in order that the relationship, the avenue of communication between that person and God will become clearer, and their focus can be wholly on God, instead of God and whatever else it is you might be distracted by.

If you’ve ever fasted, you know that it is not the easiest thing to do, and it probably isn’t the most pleasant thing to do either. I don’t think anybody ever said, “I can’t wait to fast again; that was fun!” The reason it’s not very easy or fun is that we are depriving ourselves of something that we are used to, something that makes us comfortable in this world. Being hungry is not a pleasant experience, in fact sometimes it hurts. But when we fast, we stick it out because we know in the end it will benefit us, it will hopefully result in a better relationship with God, or a better idea of what God wants us to do. We also stick it out because we can see the end. We go through our fast, not concentrating on the hunger pangs and the decrease of energy and the discomfort, we look to the end, when we will break the fast, and once again enjoy the comforts that we have temporarily forsaken. Whenever I fast, I think that’s the biggest thing that allows me to keep from giving in to temptation, from giving up and breaking the fast before I intended to. If there wasn’t an end in sight, I wouldn’t have the anchor I need to look to in order to maintain my self control and self discipline.

Bigger than just fasting, the Christian walk is much the same way. We are told to abstain from those things which God abhors and to steer clear from things that will hinder our walk with Christ. We are asked to deny ourselves those thing, often times things considered to be comforts, or ‘life enhancing’, such as drunkenness, or promiscuous sex, or pornography, or any number of things that lead to breaking God’s commands or going directly against the teachings of Jesus. We are told to abstain, but I think that many of us, including me, fail at this in some area fairly consistently. The temptation is always around us, and sometimes it even comes from within us. We are bombarded with temptation after temptation. Much like you notice the smells of food, and notice people eating when you are fasting, when you are abstaining from the other things in the world, you tend to notice the temptation all around you. Like I said earlier, in fasting we can look to the end of the fast to gather strength and maintain self control, but with the Christian walk, the end isn’t as visible to us. In fact, to many, the end is nowhere in sight. The Christian walk is unlike a fast in that it lasts an entire lifetime. In the life that Christ calls us to live on this world, we are required to give up things for our entire life. No end on this world. This is one reason that Jesus says in Matthew 8:20 “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” This means that we have no home on this earth since our home is in heaven, but it also means that foxes and birds, they have comforts in this world, but the Christian has nothing in this world to comfort him. That sounds depressing, but the better part of this little comparison is that when we reach the end of this great fast known as the Christian walk, we will have every comfort we need being in direct communion with Christ. That is the end of the fast that the Christian looks to for strength. Just like in a temporary fast here in this world where we look toward the end, the breaking of the fast for our resolve and self restraint, as Christians, we should look toward the end or our walk when we will have all we ever needed and wanted in God in Heaven for our resolve and self-restraint. When viewing this life as all there is, the Christian walk looks very impractical and extremely miserable because we abstain from things even to death, never experiencing some things. But when viewed as a fast with a great feast at the end, it is a wonderful thing because, though we might not experience some of the comforts in this world, we will have all that we need and want in the next for eternity. So next time you are wavering in the presence of temptation, think about the end, when you will break your fast and be given all that you’re heart and soul will ever need and want in Christ. Though you might deny yourself a comfort now, in the end, the reward will be that much sweeter, just like fasting in this world; when you deny yourself of some comfort, at the end when you break the fast, the comforts that you do experience are much sweeter than they would be if you had given in at the first sign of temptation.