Warning Label
Warnings typically want to return earlier than the rest. I bear in mind a highschool chemistry class the place we labored with silver nitrate. Earlier than we discovered something about its composition or makes use of, and even the experiment we’d be operating that day, our instructor warned us a number of occasions to not let it contact our pores and skin. The apparently colorless resolution, she advised us, would change coloration after solar publicity.
When you have got a bunch of youngsters standing in entrance of chemical bottles and eager to do something however be taught, you must hammer house that warning first. (One classmate, in fact, blithely rubbed it throughout his arms—he was lined with brown splotches for days.)
At occasions, the Bible is heavy on warnings. That’s the case for the subject of fasting. It may be irritating to these of us who need a easy instruction guide for this religious self-discipline, however Scripture offers extra instructions about how to not quick than it does constructive directions.
So if we wish to search nearer communion with God by way of this usually uncared for technique of grace, we’ll want to start out with the Bible’s directions concerning the flawed method to do it. As soon as we’ve been warned off that path, we’ll see the higher approach.
This quantity of TGC’s Disciplines of Devotion collection invitations girls to stir their affections for God by cultivating the biblical observe of fasting.
How To not Quick
Don’t Keep away from It
The best approach we are able to go flawed in fasting will not be doing it. At the moment, that is the commonest strategy, not less than in my circles. Few evangelicals make fasting a daily observe.
I perceive why. Amid all of the warnings and potential pitfalls, we would really feel it’s safer to skip the observe. And in our overindulgent age, the place we are able to order any delicacies to our door with the press of a button, it’s countercultural to deliberately step away from the pleasures of consuming.
However in the event you keep away from fasting, you’re lacking out. Skipping the blessings of meals will be counted as a acquire after we deal with God and see it as a present from him—one which believers all through historical past have loved. Jesus assumed his followers would quick after he returned to his Father (Matt. 9:15), and the early church engaged on this observe (Acts 13:2–3; 14:23). Don’t miss out.
Don’t Boast About It
In the event you take up this self-discipline, you instantly face a hazard: feeling proud that you simply’re one of many few practising it. Our sinful hearts are inclined to show even ostensibly good works into causes for boasting, which strips them of any advantage (just like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9–14).
Jesus warns in opposition to those that, whereas fasting, moan and groan in public so everybody is aware of what they’re doing. They need the reward of reward from males—and that’s all they’ll get (Matt. 6:16–18). The good advantages of fasting will do us no good after we see it as a method for our acquire and glory.
Our enemy seizes on this evil inclination of our hearts; he needs to maintain our eyes on ourselves and what we’ve achieved relatively than on Christ. So, be in your guard. Don’t let skipping a meal be the means by which Devil devours you (1 Pet. 5:8).
We All Want Reminders!
Within the busyness of life it’s all too straightforward to overlook who God is, what he has carried out for us, and who we’re due to him. Crossway needs to assist! Enroll at the moment to obtain concise Scripture-filled, gospel-saturated reminders that can encourage you and strengthen your stroll with Jesus.
Don’t Misuse It
We go astray after we see fasting as a way to get what we wish from God. As with all religious disciplines, we have to be cautious how we speak about fasting’s advantages or outcomes. God chooses to behave in response to our Scripture studying, prayer, and fasting, however we don’t earn the result by our exercise. The Israelites are rebuked in Isaiah 58 for pondering their fasting earned them credit score with God.
King David prevented this error after being rebuked by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam. 12). God advised David that as punishment for his sin, his toddler son would die. David fasted and prayed for seven days, pleading for his son’s life—however the child nonetheless died. But David obtained up, worshiped God, and ate a meal. His quick was an earnest, humble plea, and he accepted the result. It wasn’t an try to twist God’s arm and make him do what he needed.
How one can Quick
So then, how ought to we quick? I may provide you with suggestions and methods, however your coronary heart’s angle is crucial issue.
Prayerfully
The important thing characteristic of any trustworthy quick is that it’s accompanied by prayer. Fasting is an help to prayer—in John Piper’s phrases, it’s the “hungry handmaid of religion.”1 It isn’t a present of exertion or self-discipline however an help to really feeling our humility, weak spot, and want, which have been there all alongside however are often clouded by our indulgence and our phantasm of power.
It’s this felt want that God responds to. Puritan preacher Arthur Hildersham places it this fashion: “This outward abstinence will not be the chief a part of a real quick nor the chief assist to our prayers. The inward humiliation of the soul is much extra acceptable to God and has extra drive to make our prayers pierce the heavens than all this.”2
A humble coronary heart will enable you keep away from the traps of searching for others’ approval or manipulating God. And the extra you quick, the extra you’ll really feel this vulnerability and want—and the extra you’ll see how a lot you want this religious observe.
So if you quick, be sure you’re setting apart that point to wish. A sample I usually comply with is to quick from breakfast and lunch as soon as every week, and use the time I’d usually spend making ready and consuming these meals in prayer as a substitute.
The important thing characteristic of any trustworthy quick is that it’s accompanied by prayer.
Purposefully
You’ve most likely had the expertise of feeling such as you don’t know what to wish. You would possibly resolve to wish for half an hour, however when you’ve knelt, mentioned some model of “Our Father in heaven,” and prayed in your quick wants, you get caught.
Since fasting sharpens my want for God and strengthens my prayers, I wish to use it deliberately. I not often quick with no particular subject or difficulty in thoughts to wish about. It might be a sin I’ve been scuffling with. It might be a troublesome relational difficulty. It might be a advantage I wish to develop in. It might be a necessity in my church or household.
Then I don’t simply pray from what’s in my head. I learn related Bible passages, pray by way of notes I’ve taken from books, or use one other useful resource. For instance, once I’ve sought God for revival in my church, I’ve prayed by way of Rachel Jones’s little e-book 5 Issues to Pray for Your Church.3
I wish to hold a document of what I pray about. This retains me targeted and provides me one thing to look again on. After months of praying about the identical difficulty, I’ve been inspired by studying by way of my prayer notes and seeing how God has answered.
Get Began
Fasting is a uncared for religious self-discipline. Nevertheless it has wealthy advantages in the event you’ll let it humble and form you. In order you concentrate on how one can quick and the way to not quick, bear in mind this primary tip: Strive it.
Begin with only one meal. Use that typical mealtime to wish, and let the starvation educate you about your want for God. Do it by yourself, or invite a couple of buddies to hitch you in praying for a mutual want or concern. Name out to God, asking him to make use of this observe to convey you to prayer. And see how he works.
When you’ve got any medical situations which will make fasting inadvisable, discuss to your physician first. These with consuming issues will possible discover fasting extra dangerous than useful. These with a historical past of consuming issues ought to likewise train warning and search godly counsel. Bear in mind, fasting is an help, not a requirement. You’re no much less godly if knowledge dictates that you simply shouldn’t take part.
Notes:
- John Piper, A Starvation for God: Needing God By Fasting and Prayer (Crossway, 1997), 64.
- Arthur Hildersham, Fasting, Prayer, and Humiliation for Sin (Soi Deo Gloria Ministries, 2019), 51.
- The entire 5 Issues to Pray collection from The Good E book Firm is a wealthy useful resource that will help you pray in your partner, youngsters, world, and extra.
Cassie Achermann is the creator of Fasting.
Associated Articles
