Over the past months we
have been participating in a challenge to engage in practices that draw us to
Christ and focus us on grace. As we end the #iGrowchallenge during Easter week
I want to encourage you to practice another discipline that the faithful have
been practicing throughout the millennia and that is fasting. As we approach
Easter week and Good Friday I encourage you to take a Fast on Good Friday to
remember Gods love in your life and also to give your concerns and struggles to
God.
WHAT IS FASTING?
Fasting is an intentional
giving up of anything else that occupies our time. Food is often the focus of a fast but there
can be other fasts such as giving up TV, or social media, or other things as
well. Usually a person fasts during a
specific period of time and is for a specific purpose. The Israelites fasted to
repent, to mourn, to seek God, and to listen to God. Jesus began his ministry with 40 days of
fasting and the Newt Testament church fasted when they sought Gods will or
needed the grace and strength to stay faithful to Gods work. Lent has often been a time to fast in various
Christian traditions.
WHY FAST?
James Earl Massey writes: “Fasting is important
in Christian experience because it deepens within the whole self a sense of
ones dependence upon the strength of God. Fasting is more than an act of
abstinence. It is an affirmative act; it is a way of waiting on God: it is an
act of surrender. “
Fasting is not a magical
way to manipulate God into doing your will or a spiritual way to lose weight or
control others. Fasting clears us out and opens us up to intentionally seeking
Gods will and grace in a way that goes beyond normal habits of worship and
prayer. When we are fasting we are opening up to God and offering him the time
and attentiveness we might otherwise be giving to eating, shopping, or watching
television.
Especially during Easter
week or Good Friday fasting is a way to remember the church of how Jesus gave
up everything –even his life-for us. It
is also a way to pray for your life, the church, or your world. During a fast
we are reminded throughout our day of our need and during those times we can
come to God in prayer or seek God in the scriptures. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
writes “Deny yourself a meal and when your stomach growls ‘I’m hungry’ take a
moment to turn from your emptiness to the nourishment of Christ (Matt 4:4).
Feed on Jesus the bread of life. Skip the TV, video games, or listening to
music or podcasts and become aware of how fidgety you are when you aren’t being
amused or diverted. Then dodge the remote and embrace Jesus who is the ‘bread
of life’. (John 4:34)”
HOW TO FAST
There are many ways you
could fast on Good Friday:
Fasting from food. Don’t eat anything for a 24 hour period or for a
whole day. So you could fast from after
dinner on Thursday to breakfast on Saturday.
Or you could skip dinner on Thursday and fast till dinner on Friday. So you could miss either two or three
meals. Make sure to drink a lot of water
during this time and be aware if you are feeling sick. Do not fast if you are
pregnant or have any medical conditions.
When you break your fast don’t do it with a large meal. Eat a smaller
portion of food.
Fasting from media. Take an intentional 24 hour period without TV, or
video games, social media, or music or the internet. Put away the phone or the
computer for a whole 24 hour period. You
could do this from Thursday evening to Saturday morning.
Fasting from something else. If there is something else that you particularly
hold onto or that you can’t go without for a day, spend 24 hours without that.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR FAST
Use the time to draw near to God. If you are giving up food then use the time you
would usually eat to pray and draw near to God. Take a walk and pray for those
around you, read a devotional book or the scriptures, write concerns or
thoughts in a journal. If you are giving
up media use the time you would be watching TV or surfing the internet to focus
on God and listen to His leading.
Attend a Good Friday Service.
Praise God throughout the day. Relax and breathe deeply. Place yourself in the
presence of God. Offer yourself and your time to God. Praise God for where He
has come through for you Psalm 103:1-5 is a good starting point for praise.
Intentionally pray. 1. Pray for yourself and your needs. Repent of
your sin, ask God to meet you in your need. 2. Prayer for friends and family.
Pray that they might be blessed and know peace. 3. Pray for the church. Pray
for the leadership of the church, pastors, elders, and deacons, and all who
serve. Pray that the church might be a place people know Christ and are
welcomed. Pray that our church is a body that cares about our community and
seeks to follow Christ into the world.
4. Pray for the world around you and its needs. 5. Pray for your enemies
and those you cannot forgive or who frustrate you. If you have a hard time praying read the
Psalms and pray those to God. This Good
Friday I want you to encourage you to participate in a practice that the
faithful have participated in for thousands of years and that is fasting.
Look for Grace. All day as you are fasting just be looking for Gods
grace. What grace has been shown to you today?
What circumstances or people showed you grace and what did not show you
grace. Be aware of when you experience consolation and desolation and give
those to God.
Fasting makes me vulnerable and reminds me of my frailty. It leads me to
remember that if I am not fed I will die. …. Standing before God hungry. I
suddenly know who I am. I am one who is poor, called to be rich in a way that
the world does not understand. I am one who is empty, called to be filled with
the fullness of God. I am the one who is hungry, called to taste all the
goodness that can be mine in Christ. -Macrina Wiederkehr
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