Lenten Fasting
One of the things many people do during Lent is to fast. Have you decided to give up something for Lent? Many give up sweets, sugar, alcohol etc. for Lent. Some give up a meal - they skip lunch for those 40 days. In our time some give up social media, or TV.
We do this, not as an act of brave self-denial, but in order to connect more deeply with God!
Listen to some wisdom from John Piper on the issue of fasting: "The issue is not food per se. The issue is anything and everything that is, or can be, a substitute for God. Anything can stand in the way of true discipleship - not just evil, and not just food, but anything. Fasting forces us to ask repeatedly: do I really hunger for God? Do I miss Him? Do I long for Him? Or have I begun to be content with His gifts? - If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this."
So we fast, not because we are supposed to, but because so often we have filled ourselves with the wrong things, and we need to be purified of these things, and live with a purer connection to God!
What will you fast this Lent? It's a worthwhile thing to do, I believe.
What Fasting Is Not
But let me caution you about two things. First, if you've read people say you should fast anger, or unkind words, or nastiness for Lent - that is a misunderstanding of fasting! Fasting is not about giving up certain sins for a time - those are things you should be keeping out of your life daily. Fasting is taking something good, a good gift, and dropping it from your life so you can focus on something better - God.
Fasting With the Right Heart
Secondly, let me caution you about fasting as an act of self-righteousness, while leaving good deeds undone. Listen to this passage in Isaiah 58, where God's people are fasting but He is not pleased with them: "'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. Your fasting ends in quarrelling 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. 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? 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 them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (Isaiah 58:3-7)
Fast this Lent, but not to try to earn God's favour. Fast to get closer to Him, and to do more good deeds for the needy than normal, in these 40 days.
A Lenten fast should always be accompanied by focused prayer. Be sure to pick something specific to pray about this Lent, and ask God for a breakthrough as you pray and fast.