Fasting

Isaiah 56, 5-6, “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day of the Lord? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke.”

For the past several days fasting continues to come into my conversations with God. The reason being that I have two nagging, unresolved, material issues in my life that have drug on for too long without God’s intervention. I keep wondering if perhaps a fast will break the devils death grip in the areas. Or perhaps the thoughts are the Holy Spirit calling me to a fast for that very purpose.

Biblically, particularly in the Old Testament the fast served a couple of purposes. It was often used to court God’s favor, to achieve a favorable outcome like in a war or to remove unpleasant circumstances like captivity. It was also there as a part of repentance and reparations for sin.

In Isaiah there was a fast that was not affective, and it was not because the people perhaps gave up food, but nothing else changed. They continued to quench all other desires and showed no mercy to their workers during it rather than allow the fast to humble them. And so Isaiah speaks on behalf of God to define an acceptable fast. Only here it is not giving up food. The fast calls for giving up what amounts to sin, or as he calls it, “bonds of wickedness.” It sounds too like giving up addictions, or perhaps distractions when he says, “bands of the yoke… and break every yoke.”

And so my thoughts turn to times in the past where I have fasted television, video games, and other distractions for a time of prayer and being in relationship with God. After all in the American culture we have 24/7 distractions. We can wake up to TV or Radio, surf the internet from anywhere via computer, smart phone, or tablet. We wake up, we go, go go… to come home to go some more to finish the evening watching TV or surfing the internet some more. All distractions from relationship with God. All background noise so that we do not have to explore the recesses of our thoughts and soul in silence. For many, myself included, the distractions become an addiction. There are women who spend hours in romance novels and no time in the Bible. There are men who surf porn equally as long. Those things, and many others, become addictions. And it is the fast that breaks those yokes.

For me, I enjoy a glass or two of wine or an ice cold beer in the evening. But I also have to ask myself often is it too much, is it too often? Is it time for a fast of alcohol? Is it time for a fast of facebook, tv, the internet?

Sin of course should be fasted, but I have to ask myself what is the motive. Sin being anything that interferes with my relationship to Christ. Would I give up the distraction in obedience, or is my motive to court the favor of God like the men of the Old Testament? Am I only willing to loosen the band of wickedness so that God will cause me to win the lottery? And if I won the lottery, would I go back and put those bands on, or worse?

Fasting tobacco for God is a great way to start the breaking of that addiction. Fasting any addition for God is a great way to start, but when doing it for God is done, what do we become? Are we the dogs that return to their vomit?

And so I continue in my conversations with God concerning the fast, having already committed a couple of things to Him in this area. All the while guarding and questioning my heart as to its motives. Wondering if I am doing it purely to get a resolution to my material issues, or if I am doing it in an act of obedience without consideration of the outcome.

All of which I hopes causes you to consider a fast in your own life.

God Bless