Some people like to brag about fasting, like some gym rats brag about how much they bench. I’ve known a handful of both types of individuals throughout the years, and I’ve yet to decide which is the most annoying. Whichever turns out to take the number one spot, they are both similar in that neither brags about being average. You’ll never hear a gym rat brag that he benched a hundred pounds, and you’ll never hear a Christian braggart brag about fasting for a day. It’s always six hundred pounds and a forty-day fast.
To put it into context, throughout the entirety of the Bible,
which spans roughly four thousand years, there were only three men who went on
forty-day fasts, and one of them happened to be the Son of God.
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. That’s it. Those are the only three
men documented in the Bible as having gone on a forty-day fast, yet nowadays,
every guy and his grandma seem to be on a forty-day fast. They really try to
shoehorn it in wherever they can. You ask them about their dog since the last
time you talked they mentioned it was sick, and they tell you the dog’s a bit
lonely because they’ve been on a forty-day fast and didn’t have the energy to
play fetch.
If you’re fasting just to get a badge or to have a reason to
brag about how spiritual you are, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, and
the intended benefit of having fasted will be negated anyway. Throughout this
discussion, I will repeatedly hammer home the point that the reason you fast,
the purpose for it, is of paramount importance, as is the case with most things
in life. God knows the why. He sees the inner things of the heart, and nothing
is hidden from His eyes.
Why we do what we do matters. It matters to those around us,
and it matters to God. If I give a homeless man a slice of pizza just to take a
selfie, or if I give one of my girls a hug in the morning just to make the
other one jealous, it belittles the actions and eliminates the pure intent I
otherwise might have had.
We don’t know how long the people of Nineveh fasted for. It
remains a mystery to this day, but Biblically speaking, other than the three
aforementioned individuals who fasted for forty days, fasts usually lasted
anywhere from one to three days. It is a predetermined time that you decide
upon, and there’s no right length or wrong length of time to fast. You are not
spiritually superior to me for having fasted forty days, and I’m not
spiritually inferior to you for only having fasted three. We fast as unto the
Lord, and not to impress the fellas at the men’s breakfast.
As an aside, I will also try to keep from telling you what I
do as far as fasting because anecdotal evidence is just that, and I want this
to be about what the Bible says about fasting rather than what others think
about fasting. By others, I include myself. Granted, I’m kind of a stickler for
Biblical accuracy, and I interpret a fast to be within the strictest parameters
possible, meaning no food and no water, but that’s just me.
Have I gone forty days without food and water? No. Unless
supernaturally sustained, no man can go without water for more than a few days.
It is physically impossible. In order to begin that particular journey, you
must be supremely assured that it was God who called you to it, for He will
have to sustain you through it. Three men, one of them being Jesus, over four
thousand years. Keep that in mind.
Although the Bible discusses nationwide fasts, wherein a fast
is consecrated, and all the elders and the inhabitants of the land are gathered
together in the house of the Lord, we will be focusing mainly on individual
fasts, wherein we do them as unto the Lord, without advertising, boasting, or
making ourselves seem in such a way that someone is bound to ask why so glum,
chum?
It’s not men who must honor you for your fast. It’s not men
who must know about it, so they see you as some spiritual juggernaut of the
modern era. A true fast is intimate, private, between you and God, and
something wholly sublime once you understand the purpose thereof.
There is a story of a young missionary who, while out in the
field, wrote an entry in his journal describing how it was more difficult for
him to fast while he was alone and by himself than it had been while he’d been
attending seminary. When he sat down and thought about why it was so, he
determined that it was because while at seminary, everyone would note his
absence from the cantina whenever he fasted. Everyone would know why he was
missing and associate him with being virtuous and humble. His self-awareness is
noteworthy and presents a challenge for us today. Do you fast so others might
see, or do you fast so God might see?
Fasting was designed to make your flesh weaker while making
your spiritual man stronger. It shifts your focus from the temporal things of
this earth to His presence, His glory, His voice, and His will. Fasting is a
form of worship. It is the mechanism by which we zoom in on God, drawing closer
to Him and seeing the wondrous details of His nature, character, and plan for
our lives. It is a means of humbling ourselves before Him that has been practiced
for millennia, but that has been whittled away in recent times to the point
that most modern-day churches never even mention it anymore.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment