Fasting and prayer

We are in a week of fasting and prayer here at Stone Church.

Fasting is the spiritual discipline of deliberately and voluntarily abstaining from eating, which combined with prayer, brings supernatural power to our connection with God.

Fasting means to do without, to practice self-denial.

At the basis of fasting is the renouncing of the natural to reconnect with the supernatural. Its meaning can be expanded to include temporary abstinence form anything else in order to give more concentrated attention to spiritual things.

Mark Buchanan writes;

“Fasting churns the stuff up from the depths. Is there anger in me? I can usually control that with a burger and fries Am I resentful, irritated, overly ambition, fearful? I can smoother that with pizza. Am I depressed or embittered, suffering from a sense of life’s unfairness? I can artificially perk myself up with a Mars bar.”

We do that at times – use food to deal with life.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus gives us some incredible lessons concerning fasting and prayer.

Jesus taught in Matthew 6:16-18:

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Jesus says, "when" you fast, not "if" you fast, in other words, fasting should be a part of our spiritual walk with God. We should include fasting into our spiritual disciplines as we do reading the Bible and praying.

We are not punishing our bodies, but disciplining our bodies to make them obey us.

Self-control (a fruit of the spirit) is meaningless unless it includes the control of our bodies.

Fasting doesn't need to be in secret, but it does need to be in private, meaning that we don't make a big deal out of it. We don't hang our heads and moan and groan, "I'm fasting." Nor do we have a spiritual air of superiority with our spiritual noses up in the air, saying, "Please ask me how spiritual I am."

True fasting is done with a spirit of humility.

I like what John Piper wrote, "Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God." Do you hunger for God's presence? I know I do.