In this message series, we are challenged to question the things which we crave.
We were reminded that God created us with cravings, but that we often settle for lesser things than God created them for.
We turn to created things rather than the Creator to satisfy those cravings and are left empty. God has promised to satisfy our desires with good things.
It isn’t that the things of the world which we crave are necessarily bad. It is when they entice us and drag us away from God that they become issues. It is when we value and desire and pursue them as much or more than God that they become issues.
God has given us a tool which we can use to both test our cravings and dependencies as well as to express to God our craving and desire for Him. It is known as fasting.
To fast is simply to give something up. Perhaps you’ve had lab work done or had surgery performed that required you to abstain from food for a certain period of time. Spiritually, we choose to fast so that we can shift our focus onto God.
It may be fasting from food altogether like Jesus did for 40 days or Paul did for 3 days after his Damascus road encounter or Esther had all of the Jews do for 3 days. It may be fasting from certain foods like Daniel did choosing to eat only vegetables and drink only water. It may be from certain activities like Paul wrote about spouses mutually deciding to abstain from “marital duties” to spend time in prayer.
In today’s culture, it seems that there are far more things that distract us and consume our time and attention. Fasts today often include social media or streaming TV or certain apps such as games.
If you want to see just how much something has a hold on your life, try fasting it.
Romans 6:16 (NLT)
Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
There is a principle here that applies to anything in life. We usually do not realize what we are enslaved by. We usually do not realize what we are offering ourselves to as obedient slaves. That is until we tell it, “No!”
That is what we do by fasting it. We deny it a place in our lives. We tell it, “No.”
We don’t realize that we are enslaved by something because we just always obey it and don’t give it much thought. We get thirsty for a beer, we go to the fridge and get it. We get hungry for a Little Debbie, we go to the cupboard and grab one. Out of sheer habit, we put a cigarette in our mouth and light up. We stop moving for 10 seconds, so we pull out our phone and check our notifications or scroll through social media.
We do things out of habit and don’t even think about it. Like floating in a lazy river, we always just go-with-the-flow, so we don’t realize that we are being forced and enslaved to do them. It isn’t until we hop off of our floatie and try to go the other direction that we realize how forceful and controlling that “lazy river” is.
Fasting brings revelation of our dependency on created things that we may not realize is there otherwise.
Matthew 4:1-4
1 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. 3 The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Fasting fixes our focus on this reality. We don’t ultimately live by anything other than God’s word and His will and for His purposes.
We may work hard to earn a living, but it is God who gives us the health and strength and skills and opportunities to do so. A humbling reality is that it is up to God alone for our heart to take its next beat or for our lungs to take their next breath. We live because God has chosen to give us life and to continue sustaining our lives. Fasting reminds us of this reality.
Although fasting was a common practice both under the old and new covenants, the only time that I could find where God required a fast of His people was on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23). Fasting is completely voluntary on our part.
Fasting is all about re-focusing and re-adjusting our heart condition. It is not a protest for all to see. It does not twist God’s arm to bend to our will. It is not a way to grab God’s attention.
Fasting is about us purposefully and intentionally setting apart time to abstain from something in order to replace it with the pursuit of God. It is to seek His Presence and His will. As we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. It is more about our internal spiritual condition than it is about anything external.
Even in Nineveh when the king called a nation-wide fast of all food and drink for all people and animals, it was to seek after God and to turn away from their evil ways. It wasn’t just an outward display that the nation was putting on for God, it was for a far greater purpose of true repentance from the inside out.
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:16-18
16 When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others 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.
A fast that honors God isn’t just about what we give up, but the Godly things which we replace it with. God gives us a blueprint for what His desire for fasting looks like. He also calls out how we can actually be in sin while fasting and seeking Him.
Isaiah 58
True Fasting
1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then the righteousness One will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
When we fast, it’s not only what we are giving up that is important, but also what we are replacing it with.
Are we helping lift the burdens of those around us?
Are we feeding those who are hungry?
Are we helping clothe those in need?
Here’s probably the toughest one of all!
How are we treating our own flesh and blood; our family?
IF, IF, IF we do these things while fasting, God has promised amazing things!
He will go ahead of us to guide us and have our backs as well. He will satisfy our needs even if the earth is scorched. He will strengthen our frames. We will bear good fruit and find joy. IF, IF, IF we do our part, God will faithfully do His.
Fasting is also not something to be done just out of habit or routine.
God’s people asked the prophet Zechariah if they should fast in the fifth month like they always did. God’s reply was very similar to what He spoke through Isaiah about true and proper fasting. God said:
Zechariah 7:5-13
5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh (day of atonement) months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”
8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.
13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty.
God is calling out to us today. Will we listen?
Do we fast?
Do we take time to intentionally abstain from created things to pursue the Creator?
When we choose to fast, is it the type of fast that honors God?
The type of fast that He desires?
If it seems like God is just not listening; not answering our prayers, these questions are a great starting place. Like the Ninevites, let’s truly fast. Let’s repent of our hardened hearts and listen to the written word of God and the words spoken through the prophets as they are led by the Holy Spirit.