The Natural and the Spiritual
Let's talk about the nature of fasting, whether you're going to start fasting soon, or maybe just think about it at a later stage. Hopefully this week will just allow you to understand what it's about in a deeper way.
Fasting and Prayer
I like what Marilyn Hickey says in this book. She says “fasting deals with the physical nature of you as a person, but prayer deals with the spiritual. Fasting is a physical discipline. Prayer is a spiritual discipline. Fasting turns your attention away from the world, but prayer turns your attention towards God. Fasting calls you to leave behind an earthly concern like eating. Prayer calls you to focus on the eternal things of God. Fasting challenges you to trust God in material and physical things. But your prayer challenges you to trust God for the deep things of an abundant spiritual life.”
Trusting Through Fasting
And so let's remember that fasting and prayer must be linked. If you want to fast just to lose weight, that's a whole different ball game. We're talking about fasting not just as a physical thing, but linked to prayer and deeper spiritual growth with God.
Now, when I fasted before, I found it difficult, especially the first day, first couple of days, depending on how long you're fasting, you get very dejected because you get very hungry at first. Sometimes you feel quite weak, pretty grumpy, perhaps. But if you persevere, there's a breakthrough that comes. It's very interesting.
Breakthrough in Fasting
And in the book she says that after the initial preoccupation with eating, you begin to experience a feeling of being cleansed, a feeling of being emptied of things that were a burden, a feeling of inner strength to overcome that hunger, a greater awareness of your body and God's amazing way of creating it.
And so the importance of eating for this little season begins to diminish as you go deeper in prayer. You see, when you fast and pray, friends, two great things happen, as Hickey says, like the two sides of a coin. The first one is that you have a greater awareness of your need. You realize just how weak and frail you are when you fast. It humbles you in a tremendous way.
And of course, you get a greater awareness of God himself. The weaker you see yourself, the stronger God appears. The more time you spend in worshipful prayer and intercession while you're fasting, the stronger your sense of God's greatness, his power, his clarity, his purposes.
And so fast and pray together, friends. Deny yourself in a physical way, go deeper in a spiritual way, and you'll surely be put into the position to receive what God desires to give you.
