Cheri Strange, Christian Speaker and Author

Several years ago, I sat in a Sunday School class that was studying through a wonderful book: Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. What a treasure! On this particular Sunday we were to cover the chapter on fasting. Ironically, my class planned a special breakfast for this week’s discussion. It wasn’t so ironic once the teacher (a seminary student, to boot) dismissed Foster’s call to practice fasting by casting the practice into the realm of animal sacrifice. It’s just not something we need to do anymore. Fasting is something we talk about, not something we do.

Is he right? Is fasting something of the past? Did it end with the coming of Christ? Are we freed to dismiss it as a historical concept?

I think the best question to raise is this: What does the whole counsel of the Word of God teach about fasting?                        

I’m sure all of you have THAT kind of time today, right? Of course not.

How about I lay out seven Biblical references with a summary statement to give you a head start? That should be PERFECT!

1. Exodus 34. Moses went up the mountain, spent 40 days and nights with God, and received the Ten Commandments. It is at this time, during this 40 day period, God made an everlasting covenant between himself and the people of Israel.

2. 1 Kings 19:1-21. Elijah had had enough; he traveled without food or water for 40 days to the mountain of God. God came to him, listened to his complaints, and encouraged him by reminding Elijah he was not alone, giving him a job to do, and providing him with a helper (Elisha) for the rest of his life. Incidentally, Elijah never experienced a personal crisis like this again. He moved from calling it quits in life, to embracing God’s call on his life.

3. 2 Chronicles 20:1-29. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, finds himself in a mess. Several kingdoms around him are about to attack. He is up against a “vast” army, greater in number, strength, and equipment. “Alarmed,” Jehoshaphat inquires of the LORD and proclaims a fast. He tells God the whole mess, ending with my favorite: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Amazingly God brings him direction and takes care of the entire problem.

4. Mark 2:19-20. Some asked Jesus why his disciples were not fasting. He said it was because he was still with them. BUT, a time would come when they would fast.

5. Matt. 4:2. Jesus fasts from food and water 40 days and then defeats Satan’s attempts to get Him to sin.

6. Matt. 6:16-17. Jesus addresses fasting giving a couple of do’s and don’ts. The point in these verses is that he uses the words, “when you fast…,” not “if.”

7. Acts 13:2-3. It was in a group of Believers who were fasting and worshipping the Lord that Paul and Barnabas were set apart to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. (That would be us.)

My seminary student-teacher did not bother to bore us with these details in Scripture. Blanket statements of dismissal were given instead of Biblical references. I find no Biblical reference that gives us the freedom to toss fasting out the spiritual discipline window. Instead, I find example after example of God speaking to His people and moving in amazing ways when people fasted. I read the words of Jesus that instruct me in “when” to fast, not to just talk about it.  And I read of the Christians in the New Testament, after the death and resurrection of Christ, actively practicing the discipline and experiencing the same amazing results experienced by God’s people in early days.

Should I fast?

Biblically speaking, only if I want God to speak and move in supernatural ways. Otherwise, it’s up for dismissal.