The Habit of Fasting | Churchy Habits part 6

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-21

We have been looking at the habits of Christian Living calling them “Churchy Habits.” We began with Ephesians 5:15.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

We started with the habit of Sabbath rest—taking time to worship and be in God’s presence. We then looked at the habit of love—intentionally planning on loving others. And these two were the basis for the rest of the series which centers on the next verse.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:17

How are we to understand the will of the Lord? We can through the habits of meditating on God’s Word and Prayer.

Last week, we began looking at the outflow of this inward rhythm—Stewardship. Pastor Bob showed us how stewardship encompasses all of life, not just our money—though money is a big deal, too. One of the best questions to consider is, “Does it really honor God if you tithe 10% but fail to honor Him with the other 90%?”

So, let’s consider what honoring God with the other 90 looks like in Ephesians 5:18.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Ephesians 5:18

Now, the plain meaning is clear, Paul says to avoid drunkenness because it leads to debauchery, but rather be filled with the Spirit. And so, many Christians will avoid alcohol altogether in order to abstain from being drunk. Other Christians will say they can have some alcohol, but we should certainly avoid drunkenness. Wherever you land on that spectrum, the thrust of this verse is the “be filled with the Spirit” part.

We’ve talked quite a bit about prayer, bible meditation and other means of meeting with God communing with His Spirit, but let’s add one more that is connected with the first part of this verse—fasting. Temperance, after all, is a form of fasting. It is choosing to restrict ourselves from something.

It is also a key part of spiritual preparation.

The Example of Fasting | Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
    and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1-11

Now, I have heard this passage preached many times, and usually the teaching centers on ‘how to overcome temptation.’ Typically, that sermon can be summed up with “Read your Bible, and then quote it when the devil tempts you.” That’s not a bad sermon, but I can’t help but come back to “Why does this temptation come 40 days after Jesus fasted?” Is the devil trying to take advantage of a weakened state? Again, that seems to be where it lands for many people.

Allow me to look at this from a different angle. Look again at verse 1. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the purpose of this temptation. Jesus is headed towards temptation. The Spirit is leading Him here for this purpose. So what is Jesus’ response?

He fasts.

But wait, shouldn’t Jesus have a full belly? If He is full, then the devil couldn’t offer bread for a temptation. Why do the angels wait until after the temptation to minister to Him? Shouldn’t they come to His aid first?

The fact is, the temptation is coming. It is the Father’s will, as revealed by the Spirit’s leading, the Son must go through this wilderness and face temptation. The fullness of the answer to ‘why’ will not come in this chapter. ‘Why’ can be teased out in the following chapters and especially in light of Jesus’ mission to the cross. But for now, we aren’t supposed to ask about ‘why’ this temptation is happening. We should note temptation is an inevitability in the life of Christ.

Christian, temptations are an inevitable part of life on earth. Even Jesus was not excused from facing temptations. The question is not ‘if’ or even ‘why’ (though we can easily answer ‘why’ in light of sin’s reality), the question is, “What will we do to prepare for temptation?”

Jesus demonstrates the necessity of fasting as a means of preparing for temptations.

Now, with that said, it’s worth noting the devil gives three temptations, and these temptations are fairly common to humanity. You could argue these are categories of temptations that come our way.

The first is bread. Jesus has not eaten for 40 days, and so the devil tempts Him to use His power to create bread from rocks. It sounds odd. There are probably a number of other ways Jesus could feed himself in the wilderness rather than miraculously turning rocks to bread, but the temptation is self-preservation. Can he get Jesus to take the reins of his life and make his own bread? Jesus replies that “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God” (Deut 8:3).

Temptations are not always bad things in and of themselves. Sometimes the temptation is about how you get something. Can we depend on the Lord to provide what we need, or will we circumvent His plan to get what we want?

Fasting delays our gratification training us in patient endurance.

Jesus has just waited 40 days to eat. He can wait one more, if necessary.

The second temptation occurs at the temple. At the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus is told to jump because the angels will make sure he doesn’t fall to his death. Jesus replies with another Scripture saying, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16).

Some temptations have to do with our sense of merit or self-righteousness. We believe if we do all the right things, say all the right prayers, or give enough money, the Lord won’t allow anything bad to happen to us. We might even engage in some reckless behavior believing somehow nothing could possibly harm us because why would our Good, Good Father allow such a thing? It is no accident the high point Jesus is taken to is the temple.

Now, if there ever were a person would could bank on their merit earning some right to Divine protection, it would be Jesus. And yet, His response is “don’t test the Lord.” Whatever righteous things we do in life, they are not to bank some kind of Divine IOU against the Lord. It’s a long-standing trope in television if a character is going through some tragic event, they will ask God to fix the problem, and if He does, they will fulfill some oath. I’ll remind you again, we are not pagans. The Lord is not like the pagan gods that can be manipulated or implored to act how we want.

Fasting shifts our focus on me-centered desires to God’s desires.

The third temptation is possibly the most common. If Jesus will simply fall at the devil’s feet, He can have all the kingdoms of the world. Aside from the fact the devil is offering Jesus something that already belongs to Him, the temptation is that Jesus can skip the whole Atoning sacrifice on the cross going straight to “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Once again, Jesus goes back to Scripture with the First Commandment. Jesus’ life is fixed on serving the Father and fulfilling His mission to seek and save the lost. He will not be derailed from this mission with false promises of prestige or power. He will not take the crown without the cross.

Many times, temptation comes in the form of skipping the hard parts to success and going straight to the rewards. The problem is the hard parts are the purpose.

There are rewards and benefits to faithfully fulfilling our calling. But the goal was never the reward. The goal is the faithful fulfillment of the vocation. The farmer doesn't plant seeds because he loves planting seeds. He plants seeds because he wants a harvest. But if he refuses to plant seeds and just prays for a harvest, he's going to be waiting a long time. The planting is the work. The planting is the faithfulness. The harvest is what God does with the faithfulness.

Fasting trains us to persevere through the struggle as we fulfill our vocations.

Having looked at the relationship between fasting and temptation, let’s take a look at Jesus’ teaching on how to fast.

The Principles of Fasting | Matthew 6:16-18

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

The primary principle of fasting is that your fast is between you and the Lord. There are examples of a corporate fast in the Bible, and if you want to join with others in fasting, by all means go for it. But the fast is not about gaining attention or meeting some social demand.

We fast with the goal of drawing closer to God.

It does no good to engage in a fast, for however long, if we do not draw closer to God. Consider how we viewed prayer. Prayer is meant to bring us into the presence of God, and by doing so, we are forced to face the sin attitudes and desires still within us. The Lord calls us to repentance which includes reorienting our desires to His. Fasting itself does not change these desires, but it certainly helps train us in relinquishing these harmful desires. If I can train myself to go without food for a time, I can train myself to withhold other drives or habits that need to go.

But if you fast with the goal of drawing closer to God, the Father who sees in secret will reward you. And I want to talk about what that reward actually is, because I think we sometimes imagine it as something external — like God is going to give you a prize for fasting correctly. But look at what Psalm 145 says.

"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him.”

Psalm 145:18-20

The reward is nearness. The reward is God's presence. The reward is that your desires get realigned to His desires, and He fulfills those desires because now they're His desires too. That is the reward. And it is a far better reward than anything the hypocrites got.

Next, Jesus says to wash your face and anoint your head. In other words, go about your daily life as though you aren't fasting. Don't make a production of it. Don't post about it. Don't mention it at lunch when everyone else is eating and you're not. Just go about your day.

But here's the thing. Eventually, people will notice a difference in you. Not because of your outward appearance. But because you've been spending time with God, and that changes a person. It changes how you talk. It changes how you respond to frustration. It changes what you find funny and what you find offensive. It changes your priorities. It changes your desires.

We fast knowing our lifestyle will be different after drawing closer to God.

If the purpose of the fast is to realign our desires and motives to be with God’s will, then we should expect that to happen.

And this connects directly back to what we looked at in our prayer sermon. Remember the neuroscience of prayer? Remember how we talked about how meditating on God — actually communing with Him — causes the part of the brain associated with self-focus to quiet down, and people naturally become more empathetic, more altruistic, more other-focused?

Fasting does the same thing through a different mechanism. It is a physical practice that produces a spiritual result. When you choose to go without something your body wants, you are training your soul in the posture of surrender. And that posture of surrender — practiced regularly, consistently, over time — reshapes who you are.

“Yet even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Joel 2:12-13

Notice what the Lord says. Rend your hearts, not your garments. In the ancient world, tearing your garments was a public display of grief or repentance. And God says, I don't want the performance. I want your heart. Fasting, like repentance, is an inward action. We are not trying to control something outside ourselves. We are learning to control our inner life. And by the grace of God, that inner life can actually change.

With these two principles in mind, let’s ask the practical question:

What should we fast and how long?

The traditional fast is from food. Food is a basic necessity, and those hunger pains we feel as we fast remind us it is time to pray. Fasting requires self-control in an area that is hardest—especially for those of us who are used to 3 square meals a day. The Jewish tradition was Monday and Thursday, but the Early Christians shifted those days to Wednesday and Friday—later the shift was explained as lining up with Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion.

The traditional system of Christian fasting was no food during the day on Wednesday and Friday.

Now, again, that is tradition. We should be careful, though, that we don’t create a new set of hypocritical rules based on tradition. The goal is not about doing things as they’ve always been done. The goal is to meet with Christ. Therefore, as much as this tradition works for you, go for it. In fact, if you have never fasted before, this would actually be a great place to start.

You might also be thinking, “Pastor, that’s a lot!” If this is too much, then by all means start smaller. Instead of two days a week, go for one. Or, instead of a whole day without food, skip a meal or two. The point is not following specific rules. The point is to spend time with God that would have been used for eating.

But let’s say, like myself, you tend to be a rebel. You’re thinking, “How else could I do this?”

I would say, let’s take a look at your daily calendar. How much time is spent on necessary things? How much time is spent on unnecessary things? What are some habits that have cut into your time with God?

Perhaps it is time to start using those Screen Time settings on your phone.

Maybe that tv in the living room doesn’t have to be plugged in.

If you have a family, how much time has been spent with them deliberately?

Fasting can be a great way to cut old habits and begin new ones.

In the past, we have been introduced to Family Worship Time. Is there a book you and your kids need to read together? Sometimes we see other families and think, “I wish we could do some of those things.” Well, you can. It just takes the effort of cutting out the things that are getting in the way.

As we close today, I want you to think about the things that are getting in the way of you hearing from God. Maybe it’s an outside distraction, or maybe it’s your own inner thoughts. Perhaps, though, it may be that you are still being influenced by sin’s corruption. Sin always tells us there is a shortcut. There is another way, an easier way, than what God has designed.

Do you remember the devil’s last temptation towards Jesus? He said if Jesus would bow to him, Jesus could skip the cross and go straight to the crown.

That is the same temptation he offers every single one of us, if we go his way, we can skip the hard part. The reality is his way only leads to more sin, more death, and more condemnation. What Jesus offers is life. Will it be a hard life? Maybe. But it will be true life.

Jesus said if anyone wants to follow Him, they need to take up their own cross and follow. We must put to death the old life if we are to take up new life in Him. Fasting is a habit that helps us continue to put to death the old self, but we cannot start with fasting. We have to start with Jesus. If you have never trusted in Him, do so today. Ask Him for forgiveness and life, and see how He does just that.