Fasting

One of the challenges with talking about steps to resolving conflict and even making it transformational is that conflict is messy, chaotic, and often doesn’t proceed in an orderly fashion. Perhaps, you’re in a difficult conflict right now and you don’t have much hope for a good resolution.

The God who created and sustains the universe is our loving Father who wants to help us work through life’s challenges. The Holy Spirit counsels, comforts, and convicts. In God we have an Almighty, all-caring ally who can give us wisdom and strength and who delights in taking broken and hopeless situations and people, and transforming them.

It seems like God often waits to move in our lives until we recognize our own inability to solve the problem. As we acknowledge that our human resources are insufficient, we recognize that God and His resources are more than enough to change hearts, mend relationships, and bring about transformation. So, in desperation, we pray. We seek God’s face. We confess our sins. We ask him to heal us and others involved in the conflict. We expect miracles because our God can do far more than we could ever ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us.

Now, I realize that with longstanding conflict, we can become weary in prayer, especially if it doesn’t look like there’s any progress or perhaps it seems like the conflict is getting worse. Keep praying. Even if we don’t see the results we’re hoping for, persistent prayer about the conflict does several things. I believe that God honors persevering prayer. In addition, as we pray, we’re exercising faith. We’re giving the conflict over to God and trusting Him to work things out in His ways and in His timing. As we pray with a thankful heart, we can experience God’s peace even during tumultuous conflict.

It’s also helpful to get others praying for the conflict and the people involved. There’s something powerful about groups of people agreeing about something in prayer.

I have vivid memories of fasting when I was a kid. I remember the odd sensation of my stomach doing backflips in the early afternoon. I remember the newfound awkwardness that lunchtime presented in the public school cafeteria. I remember thinking that ingesting any sort of calorie might undo all of the spiritual collateral I had stored up to that point. And I remember not understanding how any of this was convincing God to respond more favourably to my prayer request.

This might be why I came to the point of choosing to use one spiritual discipline against another: I took a Sabbath from fasting for about 15 years. And I didn’t think I was missing anything until I realized that my full stomach was numbing an absent hunger that I no longer felt. I finally realized that if I truly wanted to hunger for God it might make sense to make my physical body hungry.

Fasting is regarded as a spiritual practice. These practices are healthy habits that bring us closer to God. Dallas Willard described these as activities within our power that enable us to accomplish what we cannot do by direct effort. They are training tools that enhance our spiritual lives. After all, star performers or athletes didn’t achieve their excellence by trying to behave a certain way only when they’re performing a concert or playing a game.* Their excellence came from a devoted commitment to practice.

What then are Christians practicing for? What is our “performance”? I have made the mistake of thinking our performance is similar to the stage or the field – the place where the crowd is watching and critiquing. But this ignores the importance of our inner life.

I believe we’re practicing for the field the Apostle Paul describes in Ephesians 6:12 – “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.” The intensity of this battle reminds me of the need to be prepared.

Our spiritual habits prepare us for the moments when we’re not at our best. For the moments when sin is crouching at our door (Genesis 4:7), be it a public or private moment.

My high school tennis coach used to tell me that practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent.

When we’re out of shape, practice feels anything but pleasant. But when a practice turns into a lifestyle, it leaves us hungering for more.

I would love to hear your thoughts about spiritual habits. Please leave a comment below. 

- Keith Reed

Throughout Scripture, we see examples of individuals and groups who engaged in fasting. Even though fasting today often includes refraining from activities besides eating (e.g. fasting from technology), the main type of fasting describing in the Bible involved abstaining from food. This does not diminish the importance of other types of fasting, but simply puts the following three biblical reasons to fast in their proper context.

Fasting Sometimes Accompanies Repentance

Because fasting is a time of denying ourselves and focusing more on God, we are often more open to the work of the Holy Spirit during times of fasting. This is one reason why people fast from something during the Lent season.

In Scripture, we see that the Israelites confessed their sins at Mizpah as they fasted (1 Sam. 7:6). Later on in their history, the Israelites fasted as they confessed their sin of marrying foreigners (Neh. 9:1-2). Daniel fasted as he confessed the sins of his people (Dan. 9:1-6).

Fasting sometimes precedes repentance, which opens us up to the Spirit’s work. However, fasting may also come after repentance, as we see in King Ahab’s life when he fasted after becoming aware of his sin (1 Kings 21:27). In this case, fasting is a response to the Spirit’s convicting work.

Fasting Sometimes Accompanies Urgent Prayer