A Practical Handle on Fasting and Prayer
Isaiac 58:1-9
Harry Stoliker
September 30, 2007 EBC
Listen
Let me begin by saying that so far I’ve been trying to show you from Scripture
that fasting with prayer is something that our Lord Jesus Christ wants us
to do.
I have tried to show you the nature of fasting, that is, what it really is
all about: ‘hungering for God’ ‘developing an appetite for God’ ‘wanting
a degree of God’s consummation glory to come into particular situations here and
now.’ I’ve pointed out some of the dangers of fasting, such as having the
wrong motives of attracting the attention of man rather than of God.
Today I want to finish up these sermons with helping you get a practical handle
on how to fast and pray. Then we will seal up the package with Isaiah 58
that tells us if our lives don’t change, then fasting and prayer is simply
a waste and a farce.
Here are some bullet questions that will help us see the picture:
1. When I fast, do I have to completely stop eating for a whole week?! No.
There are no set rules for how long you need to fast. You may fast for just 1 meal.
Skip lunch and take a prayer walk; that qualifies as fasting. You may fast
for ½ a day, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days or even a week. The main issue isn’t the length
of the fast. You will find that the more your heart is burdened over something,
the more you want to be heard in the courts of heaven, the more urgent an
issue is to you, the longer you will be motivated to fast and pray.
Do not let the length of the fast become the issue as though it is some kind
of endurance contest.
2. What if I have a medical condition that makes fasting dangerous to my health?
The answer is that you should NOT fast then. You should NOT put yourself
in any medical danger in order to fast. You can pray intensely with other
means. There is no merit in putting yourself in danger just to say
you are fasting. Jesus never expects a person with a medically dangerous
condition to hurt themselves through fasting. That is bad stewardship of
your body.
3. Is physical food the only thing that I can fast from in order to pray more intensely?
The ans. is no. You may fast from any number of things that tend to dominate
your life. If there is anything that so preoccupies your life as to keep
you from intense prayer, that thing can become the object of a fast. Give up TV for
a week, give up your hobby for a week, find what is keeping you from prayer
and cut it out for a period of time. The normal thing given up in Scripture
is food. Why? Food is connected with our very existence and is the best picture
of our utter dependence upon God. Prayer becomes our food! To give up food
shows that we are abandoning ourselves to God because we think there is a life and
death issue at stake. Intense prayer becomes the nourishment of our souls
that takes priority over our bodies for a time.
4. Is it best to fast during the week or to fast on weekends? If you decide
to fast for 1 day, you may feel a little bit weak. It might be wise to pick a day
when you don’t have a very heavy schedule that requires a lot of
energy. That may mean a Saturday or Sunday. Be sensible to what your
body, family, schedule calls for. That doesn’t mean you can’t stretch yourself
to some degree. You might be surprised how much energy fasting CREATES
rather than requires! Normally, we are way over stocked with food energy
to begin with and a bit of a drain won’t hurt at all. Fasting has a tendency to clear
our minds, hearts, souls, and bodies.
5. Can I drink water during my fast? Yes, you should drink plenty
of water. Drinking juice or a cup of coffee is not “illegal” either.
We see cases in Scripture where people abstained from only food, but drank
water. At other times they abstained from both food and water.
6. Should I tell anyone that I am fasting? You should never brag about
fasting. Your heart is often deceitful, so be very careful that you aren’t
looking for attention. However, if your wife is cooking some luscious steaks
for supper and the Spirit leads you to fast that day, you should simply notify
her that that morning that you are seeking God through prayer and fasting
that day or for that meal. Jesus never prohibited ever telling anyone we
fasted, he prohibited bad motives.
7.What if my prayer life itself is so weak I can’t even begin to think about fasting
now?
I don’t find in Scripture any time-table for when a Christian should start
fasting. That is, you have to be this good at prayer before you begin to
add fasting to your prayers. Attempting to fast for even one meal
may jump start your prayer life. Why? As Andrew Murray said: “Fasting
helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to
sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom
of God.” I would say that if you feel you are not good at praying
at all and don’t even want to try fasting, then try fasting for even one meal
and ask God to help you see its place in your prayer life.
8. What if I begin a fast and then just don’t go through with it because I get too
hungry or just forget I was fasting that day? Again, we cannot be legalistic
about fasting. If you get too hungry and end the fast, there is no sin involved.
Learn what you can from it. Perhaps you should shorten the time you intend
to fast so you can have success at it. Build slowly. Don’t be a legalist
about fasting.
9. What if I find myself talking about my fasting with too many people and suspect
that I’m secretly boasting in my heart? Fasting does reveal what
is in our hearts. If you find yourself talking a lot about your fasting, you are
probably boasting. You would need to do some sincere repenting for spiritual
pride. Fasting isn’t the problem here. Your pride is. Ask
God to heal you of pride. Then determine to go on a fast without mentioning
it to anyone. Practice silent fasting, don’t stop fasting.
10. What if I don’t see any results from my fasting? When we pray and petition
God we leave our prayers in his wise and sovereign hands. Fasting
is not negotiating with God. It is not an attempt to manipulate God
or make God our debtor as though He owes us something because we fast and
pray. Fasting doesn’t gain you merit points with God. Fasting doesn’t make
you a superior Christian. Get those evil thoughts out of your heart.
11. Can I ask a friend or two to join me in a fast? Yes. There is nothing
unbiblical about fasting together with other Christians. Keep watch over your hearts.
Be specific on what you are fasting about.
12. How do I know if and when my fasting has become just a ritual or empty religious
practice that I do just to impress myself or other people? What is the sure sign
that it is empty of any spiritual power and displeasing to God? How can I know if
and when God sees my fasting as a stench rather than as a pleasing aroma in His
nostrils? How do I protect this spiritual discipline from rotting and decaying into
simply an exercise of the flesh?
As you can tell by the very phrasing of the question, this is the most important
one of the twelve! The answer is found in Isaiah 58, our Scripture reading
for this morning. Here is the answer: The kind of fasting that God loves is the
kind that changes your life! Turn to Isa. 58.
V.1 There is a trumpet blast! Something is wrong! Something needs to be declared.
What is it? It is Israel’s rebellion against God, the sin of the house of Jacob.
What is this grave sin? What’s the emergency? What’s the panic?
V.2 There is some kind of false appearance. Some radical inconsistency.
Some spiritual contradiction or discrepancy that has to be exposed and called
to account. From all outward appearances Israel was doing all the right
things, they seemed to have all the right attitudes and were asking
God for good things like justice and a knowledge of his will. Israel was
relentlessly consistent in their religiosity: “day after day” they sought
God out. They took a measure of delight in their religion too! But we can
pick up the problem in the little phrase “they seem” eager,
and “as if” they were a nation that does what is right! It was all
a sham!
V.3 Israel is wrestling with question #10 What if I don’t see any results
from my fasting? They had a distinct sense that God was ignoring
their fasting and prayers. They “humbled” themselves through fasting.
They felt the pain of fasting. Yes, fasting is at times painful and
that pain brings us low, humbles us. It makes us realize our frailty and
need and dependence. But it all seemed like a real waste to them for some
reason.
God created this sense of waste in their minds so that he could reveal their
hypocrisy and sin. God is not interested in our false religion. If our religion
isn’t life-changing it is rejected by God no matter how theologically orthodox it
may be!
V.3bff. Now God begins to expose their sin. “Yet on the day of your fasting,
you do as you please and exploit all your workers…” Their fasting WASN’T
for God’s glory but for their own pleasures and self-indulgence. They gained
some sense of power over people on the very days they were supposed to be
humbling themselves!
V.4 Can you imagine this! The fast ends up in a fist-fight! Rather
than using fasting to intercede for people and call down the blessings of God on
people, they were beating them up!
V.4b “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on
high.” Arthur Wallis put it this way: “Fasting is designed to make prayer
mount up as on eagles’ wings.” (p. 50)
If we fast the way God expects us to fast we have this promise that
our prayers will be heard on high! We see the promise again in V.9
“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will
say: “Here am I.”
What is this right way to fast that results in being heard on high?
God outlines the kind of fast day he wants.
V.6-7 “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? 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 him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
If fasting doesn’t create in our hearts a desire to relieve the oppression
of other people, it isn’t really changing our lives. God wants our lives
to be dominated by a love for people, a desire to alleviate suffer,
and a courage to speak up for the oppressed and to do something concrete
for the hungry, naked and homeless.
James says the same thing: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims
to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister
is without clothes and daily food. If one you says to him: “Go, I wish you well;
keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is
it?” (2:14-17) James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled
before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,
and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
What was God saying to Israel about fasting? Fasting is a crucifying of the
self which brings God glory and brings other people blessings. Don’t even
think about fasting unless you intend to ask and have the Holy Spirit
change your life! If fasting isn’t life-changing, it isn’t the kind of fasting
God is interested in.
Again John Piper says: “Woe to the fasting that leaves sin in our lives untouched.
The only authentic fasting is fasting that includes a spiritual attack against
our own sin. We test whether our fasting is a real hunger for God by whether
we are hungering for our own holiness. Fasting that is not aimed at starving
sin while feasting on God is self-deluded.” (Piper, p.135)
Authentic fasting awakens in us a hunger to sooth the pain of other people.
When we fast, our bodies want to sooth our own hunger. Yet, our spirit is learning
to cry out to God in prayer for the needs of other people, both spiritual and physical.
God is a God of kindness, compassion, generosity, and goodness, toward even
His enemies. How can we be anything less if we are trying to draw near
to God through fasting?
We are surrounded by a culture that gorges itself on one artificially inflamed
appetite after another (Piper, p.139). Fasting creates a Holy Spirit inflamed
appetite for God Himself and for the mercies of God poured out on hurting people.
That is why it changes your life. How do you know if your fasting is real, authentic,
and biblical? Is it changing you more into the image of Christ, from glory to
glory?!
Application: Can you see why Jesus wants His disciples to practice the spiritual
discipline of fasting and prayer? I challenge you to take the bulletin insert
that I have provided you and practice fasting and prayer with one or two
of the PURPOSES at a time. Pick one of the issues I’ve listed there or create
your own list of issues and focus on it with a holy intensity.
Then ask yourself what God wants you to do to help release the spiritually
or physically oppressed people that he brings you into contact with. May the Spirit
of the Living God give you grace.
Let's pray.
H.