I've Fasted Every Monday for 7 Years — Here's Why It's Not About Willpower
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Today, we have a challenging, somewhat thought-provoking message. And it's it's interesting that it occurs on Father's Day when there's a fair bit of feasting going on, because I'm gonna be talking about fasting. Woo-hoo. I think I've just lost 50% of the room. But seriously, we are talking about fasting on our Mira series, and it's a worthy topic, and we are going to check it out.
And the name of this message is called Hungry on Purpose. Hungry on Purpose Now, let's give a definition to fasting, and there's probably a lot of definitions, but I've got one here that says, "Fasting is the deliberate setting aside of physical nourishment to cultivate a deeper hunger for the presence, for the righteousness, and for the power of God."
Whoa. That's pretty big, isn't it? So that's what fasting is all about. We want the presence, we want the righteousness, and we want the power of God. Let me start with a question this morning. If you're feeling stressed or if you're feeling bored, what is it that you reach for? What's the first thing that you reach for?
Food. Yes. Food. It may be coffee. It may be something stronger. Someone just said Shiraz. I can identify with that. Shiraz. But in this world today, we are obsessed with consumption. From the moment we wake up, our senses are inundated with calls to consume, to scroll the feed, to buy the product, to grab the snack, to stream the show.
Fill the silence. Anita talked beautifully last week about silence in our Mirror series, and how silence is a worthy thing for us to work on, and fasting also can go with that silence. We are by nature creatures driven by appetite. Here's another question for you. When is the last time that you felt truly empty?
Not just 12:30 in the afternoon and you haven't had lunch yet, but fundamentally, intentionally emptied. In our culture, empty is a problem, is considered a problem to be solved immediately. An empty stomach gets a meal. An empty calendar gets filled. An empty silence gets drowned out by noise. But in the economy of the Kingdom of God, emptiness is often the prerequisite for fullness.
So today, we're diving into an ancient, counter-cultural, deeply transformative practice called biblically fasting. Again, don't switch off. I know for some of you, you've, "Oh, I've done fasting and it doesn't work for me. It's so tough. Sometimes I even get a headache." Seriously, fasting. Let's dive into it today.
Fasting is not a diet trend. It's not an ancient religious self-punishment, nor is it a hunger strike to force God's hand. Scripturally understood, and here's the definition, fasting is the deliberate setting aside of our physical nourishment, as I said before, to cultivate a deeper hunger for the presence of God.
Here's our roadmap today for our message. Number one is the example of Jesus. We're gonna look at the example of Jesus. We're gonna look at Isaiah 58, one of the great teachings on fasting in the whole Bible. And we're gonna look at the spiritual and physical benefits of fasting. Let's look at the example of Jesus.
We're gonna look we're gonna begin by looking at our ultimate teacher. Firstly, before Jesus preached a single sermon, before He healed a single leper, or before He walked on water, He was led by the Spirit to the wilderness In Matthew 4:1-2 it says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness and to be tempted by the devil.
And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry." Let me give you a little caveat. No one's gonna be asking you to do a 40, 40-day fast, okay? It's just not gonna happen today, and it probably will never happen. That's a whole nother mountain to climb. We might be talking about one meal later on, so don't panic.
It's not 40 days today. Notice three vital truths from Christ's wilderness experience Firstly, fasting precedes power. Jesus did not fast a- after He became famous. He fasted before He stepped into His public ministry. Fasting was the crucible in which His identity and His mission were sealed. If the sinless Son of God required a f- required a season of physically, physical emptying to be spiritually prepared for His assignment, how much more do we?
How much more do we need it? Number two, fasting exposes what rules us. In the wilderness, Satan approached Jesus at His physical weakest moment. The first temptation hit right at His stomach. He said, "F- if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Notice his strategy. Take a legitimate physical need and satis- satisfy it outside of the Father's timing.
And I think we could think of many more legitig- le- legitimate physical needs that we need to satisfy within the realms of God's timing and God's placement. We need to be the masters of our own flesh. And so how did Jesus respond? He says, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Do you know what? Our spiritual enemy knows the Word of God, and he knows it far better than we do. But we also need to use the Word of God. When temptation comes, we need to use the Word of God, and we have the Holy Spirit who's going to remind us of that word. When temptation comes, we need to use that Word of God.
Fasting can help us sharpen that. Jesus used fasting to reestablish the hierarchy of His life. His spirit commanded His body did not command His spirit. We need to be able to command our body to come in alignment with what God wants for us in our lives and our loved ones. When we fast, we tell our physical craving, "You're a good servant, but a terrible master."
Fasting strips away the comfort crutches and reveals what truly anchors our heart when physical comforts are removed. A question we can ask ourselves, and maybe should ask ourselves daily is, do we really want to get closer to God? Do we really? Will we make a sacrifice for that? Do we really wanna get closer to God?
Now, in the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus said, "And when you fast." Also in Matthew chapter six, in the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus says to the people, "And when you pray." He doesn't say, "If you pray" So when He says, "When you pray," then He starts to give us some, some instructions on how not to pray and how to pray.
But do you know what? When Jesus tells us how to... When Jesus tells us to pray, I don't think we have a problem with that, generally. We're happy to pray. We're happy to pray every day. We're happy to pray. But then He says, "And when you fast." Do you see what's happening there? He has an expectation that we are going to fast.
He has an expectation that we are going to pray. He says, "When you fast." And He goes into how not to fast He tells them, "Don't look somber. Don't look distressed." The, the Pharisees were making a show of fasting. They were saying, "Look at me, I'm fasting. I'm a little bit more spiritual than you." That's what they were doing.
I don't think many of us do that, I hope. But that's what He was telling the Pharisees, "Look at me." And He said, "Don't do that. It becomes between you and God. It's you and God. What are you fasting for? It's about you and God. It's also about others." Fast. He assumed His followers were gonna fast just as naturally as they would pray and give to the poor.
Do you know what? Fasting is like a tool in our spiritual toolkit. We've got to fast. We've got a fasting tool. Some of it, some of us hasn't, haven't unwrapped it yet. It's there- ... but it's not unwrapped. Do you see what I'm saying? Now, I think for me, back when I was a, a concreter, which wasn't too far back, but it was back a while now, and particularly in my early days, I would covet a tool, there, there might be a tool that I needed for my concreting, but it cost a lot of money, and I used to procrastinate for months, sometimes years about buying this tool. And then I finally bought the tool, and I got the tool, and man, it was so awesome. Why didn't I buy this years ago? Too tight.
I know some people here will probably say, "Yeah, it was too tight."
Why not? But you know what? Why didn't we use this tool years ago? And fasting can be like that. Fasting can sharpen you, it can help you, and we need to get it out of the box and use it. Okay, so here we are in part two. We're gonna have a look at Isaiah 58, the true and false fa- fast. Now, don't be alarmed.
Isaiah is in the Old Testament. It's okay. You know what? A lot of good things come through from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and fasting is one of those. We know that because Jesus is teaching about it. So it's all good. Fasting is in the New Testament, and here it comes. So we're gonna have a look in this chapter.
Israel is confused. They're participating in religious rit- rituals, including fasting, but God seems silent. Listen to their complaint in verse three. "Why have we fasted," they said, "and you have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?" Have you ever felt like that? Lord, I'm praying, I'm fasting.
Nothing seems to be happening. There was a reason that Israel was not hearing from God. And you know what? Sometimes God... Sometimes people even try and strong arm God with their fasting. You know what? I'm gonna keep fasting, God, until I get this, until I get that. You know what? I don't love that strategy at all.
Because you know why? God does not owe us anything. It's us who owe God everything. And when we fast, He speaks to us, and He gives to us, and He tells us what's gonna happen and He helps us. That's what real fasting is all about
So here's what God says to the Israelites when they're not hearing from Him, when nothing's happening, He says this in Isaiah 58:3, "Behold, in the day of your fast you hear... You seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast not o- you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice heard on high." Israel had turned fasting into a transactional ritual. They abstained from food for a few hours, but kept exploiting their workers. They refrained from bread, but consumed their neighbors with strife and gossip. They wore sackcloth and ashes to look good, while their hearts remained arrogant and self-serving.
God calls out this hypocritical performance in verse five, and He says, "Is this, is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?" God is not moved by s- physical discomfort if there's no moral or spiritual transformation.
We need to fast with a purpose. Fast with a purpose, and a fast to get to know God better. And then in verse six, God flips the script and defines what a holy, powerful fast looks like. "Is this, is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh." Look at the verbs in that. He said it's to loose, to undo, to free, to break, to share, to bring, to cover. To cover the nakedness of others, to share your bread with others.
Do you know what? True biblical fasting is not just vertical, it expresses itself horizontally. When you consider the cross, there's the vertical post and there's the horizontal, and the fasting that we do can be vertical because we wanna get to know Him more, but there is another side to fasting, and that's to loving others.
Love God, love others, and we fast. We do the things that we do down at the school to love others, to show that we care, and fasting is about that. It's about loving others. It's also about that vertical component of loving God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind.
Fasting is a tool that we can use to get to know Him better The fast that God chooses breaks the chains of addiction, systemic adjustment, greed, and selfishness. When you deny yourself physical food, your eyes should be open to those who have no food by necessity. When we engage in the fast that God chooses, let's look at the glorious promises that follow in verse eight of Isaiah 58.
It says this, Isaiah 58, "Then your light... Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall quickly appear." 58:8B says, "Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard." 58:9 says, "Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. And you shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
58:11 says, "And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong." And 58:12, "And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, and you shall be called the repairer of the breach." How's that first one? "And your healing shall spring up speedily" This is fasting at its finest.
God has a plan. He has a plan for our fast, for our fasting Do you know I have incorporated fasting into my life. And for about seven years now, I have been fasting on a Monday. And it's something that I do weekly. And I just wanna say, it, it has been something that has really stabilized me. And it's something that if I miss it, I feel like I've missed out on something.
And I just wanna say that if you can get this installed into your life on a regular basis, it becomes a real anchor point. And that's what it's become for me. I'm not saying that I've fasted perfectly, and I don't... Sometimes I don't always make it, and there are some days I may not do it, but I s- as I say, if I miss it, I really feel like I've missed something.
And it is h- it has been a great tool for me to keep me s- yes, on the straight and narrow, to keep me more stable, to keep just... It has been a, a tool that has really helped me, and I just wanna give that personal testimony. Now, if we go into the benefits of fasting, there is physical benefits. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not gonna go into too many of these, but I tell you what, if you look it up, there's a lot of good physical benefits towards fasting.
But let me just share some of the spiritual benefits
The spiritual benefits are sharpened prayer. You have a sharpened prayer life. It gives an edge to your prayers. Every time your stomach rumbles during a fast, let that physical hunger pang serve as a spiritual prompt. Lord, I need you more than this meal that I'm craving. S- there's a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
When we quiet the demands of the flesh, the whisper of the Spirit becomes clearer. We can hear it. It's like the water starting to stabilize and s- and you can see in the reflection of the water, like Anita was saying last week, fasting can do that too. And it's about... A benefit is breaking strongholds. And in Matthew 17:21, Jesus noted, we don't have this one, but regarding a certain deeply rooted spiritual bondage, "This kind does not go out by, but by prayer and fasting."
Fasting breaks the spir-spiritual fog that keeps us stuck in that repetitive cycle of sin sometimes
So as we draw this to a close, I just wanna say that, church, that fasting is not an ancient relic or some sort of medieval thing. It's a vital, living grace offered by God to His children today. Like I said earlier, it's a tool in our spiritual toolkit. Imagine what could happen in our lives and families and our community if we brace, embrace the fast of Isaiah 58 What if we fasted from political outrage and social media scrolling to intercede for the brokenhearted?
Do you know what? Sometimes people are so intent on going down rabbit holes to see what's wrong with the world, that they don't look up to see what God's doing and what's God's doing in their lives. And I don't wanna go down rabbit holes. I know there's bad stuff going on in the world. And do you know what?
The Apostle Paul said, "We are not unaware of his schemes." He said that once, but how many times did he say, "Focus on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith." In different ways, he said that so many times, and I think God wants us to focus on Jesus more He w- more than He wants to focu- us to focus down rabbit holes.
We know there's stuff going bad, but we also wanna know what's God doing and how good is He. What if we fasted to break heavy yokes of addiction in our families?
How do we begin? What about just one meal? What about just one meal? What about fasting afternoon tea? Just something small. Why don't we start small? Do you know what? If you're going to the gym, you don't start off with heavy weights. You start off small. If you wanna run, I had to walk and run, and walk and run, and walk and run until I could run.
Fasting, we start off small. But don't start off small without defining your purpose. What do you want to achieve with your fast? What do you want to pray for? What do you want to do with your fast? Do that. Even if you're only fasting afternoon tea, this is more important. It's about what you're doing with your fast, rather than the fact that you're just sacrificing a portion of a meal or a, a meal.
You might be able to then go 24 hours at some point, and just do a liquid, or a herbal tea, or whatever. And then you might go further. I've done some three-day fasts. I tell you what, the hardest day in a three-day fast is the first day. Second day is pretty cruisy, and the third day you're just floating along.
It's just cool. It's fu- it's funny how that works. But I tell you what, first day's tough. Second day, it's okay. Third day, it's- It could just keep going. But we need to have a purpose for our fast. Combine fasting with giving. If you save some money from your food, let's give it away. Let's give it to the poor.
Let's give it to people who need some help. Remember, it's not just vertical, it's horizontal. You're fasting to help others as well. You're fasting to love others Finally, we're gonna fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. That's where we need to be. It's not just the exclusion of food and you're just, If you're getting cranky and you're just not good, you're missing the point Fasting is to draw closer to God Let's pray this morning, and let's ask God to help us in our spiritual life.
Heavenly Father, we just thank You today, Lord, that You are a good God. And Lord, You say when you pray, we pray, Lord. And when You say when we f- when you fast, Lord, we sense that expectation. But Lord, it's not something that is gonna bog us down. Lord, fasting is gonna be something that we do at our own pace, that we do it to help others, that we do it to draw closer to You.
Lord, that we do it that we can be a blessing, and we do it to honor You, Lord. And so Father, we thank You today for helping us to understand what this is all about. In Jesus' name. Amen