Fasting to the Lord: When the going gets tough

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father Who is in the secret place; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly.
– Matthew 6:17-18

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father Who is in the secret place; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly.
– Matthew 6:17-18

If there’s ever been a time for fasting to the Lord, it’s now. The economy is on a rollercoaster, government is on a socialist bent, laws protecting life and conscience are being tossed overboard, self-reliance is being undermined, the family is under siege, and the decadence of society doesn’t look like it’s going to abate any time soon.

Additionally, there are undoubtedly needs in your own life, family, church and community.

If Scriptural examples are any indication, a response of sacrifice by going without food for a period or periods of time, coupled with prayer, is needed.

After all, when the going got tough in the Bible, people fasted and prayed.

There was Esther, for example, who called on the people to fast for three days from both food and water as she prepared to appeal to the Persian king about the Jews’ peril. Ezra fasted overnight to mourn Israelite men’s intermarriages with the “peoples of the land,” a development which threatened to arouse God’s anger at them again.

The results: Esther gained the king’s confidence and the Jews were saved from Haman. The Israelite men repented and divorced their pagan wives.

Possibly the most famous fast in Scripture is Jesus’ 40-day time in the Judean wilderness without food as He prepared to begin His ministry.

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, He was hungry.” (Luke 4:1-2)

There are many variables to why and how one can fast. Reasons can include repentance, intercession, mourning, revelation, deliverance from bondage, physical healing, preparation for a major endeavor, seeking of guidance. It can be done on a national level, local level, congregational level and personal level. It can be without food or water, just without food, or in the form of a restricted diet. It can be done for part of a day or for weeks.

The practice, however, has apparently disappeared among many Christian communities—to their detriment.
“The discipline of fasting has fallen into such widespread disuse that people do not know its power,” writes Elmer L. Towns in Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough.

Arthur Wallis says in God’s Chosen Fast that while “it is not a major Biblical doctrine, a foundation stone of the faith, or a panacea for every spiritual ill… when exercised with a pure heart and a right motive, fasting may provide us with a key to unlock doors where other keys have failed.”

Some people are not able to fast in certain ways, of course. Diabetics, for example, may have to settle for a type of restricted fast, simply avoiding certain foods for a period of time while continuing to eat foods that they need to live. Anyone with an eating disorder should avoid food fasts altogether, instead opting to abstain from something else in their lives. Even an apparently healthy person should consult a doctor before fasting for an extended period of time. The very young or very old also can suffer from the more extreme fasts.

But once a fast is settled on and carried out, the results are profitable, Wallis writes—if it is “done unto God.”

“Fasting, like prayer, must be God-initiated and God-ordained if it is to be effective,” Wallis writes. “When we fast, how long we fast, the nature of the fast, and the spiritual objectives we have before us are all God’s choice, to which the obedient disciple gladly responds.”

God’s chosen fast, Wallis says, is the one set apart for Him, to minister to Him, to honor and glorify Him. Fasting with the right motives then rebounds to us with blessings.

Why does a physical fast have spiritual results?

For one thing, Wallis points out, it was the temptation to eat something that led to the Fall. A physical act had spiritual repercussions.

“The cry of man’s stomach helped to drown the voice of God in the garden of Eden,” he writes.

Noah, Isaac and Esau also suffered from heeding the cry of their appetites. The Israelites, newly rescued from Egypt, longed for the “fleshpots of Egypt.” No doubt we all have been at one time or another guilty of giving in to unholy desires, physical or spiritual.
Controlling one’s appetite by voluntarily refraining from some or all food, then, can be seen as a counteraction to sin, a purging of the soul as well as of the body—extra fat, waste, decaying tissues are digested and eliminated.

When we return to eating, we can have, as Wallis writes, essentially a new digestive system to go along with a spirit cleansed by prayer and restraint.

And hopefully there will be an impact for the kingdom of God.

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Although fasting is an encouraged spiritual discipline, it’s one in which the apostles weren’t engaged while Jesus was with them.

For good reason.

“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the Bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast,” Jesus told the disciples of John in Matthew 9:15 when they had asked why His disciples didn’t fast.

Once the Bridegroom had departed, though, the apostles did fast.

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean a member of the court of Herod the tetarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:1-3)