Module 2: Prayer and Fasting

Jesus said to his disciples, "This kind can come out by nothing but fasting and prayer." (Mark 9:29).

Fasting is a trendy topic these days, due to the amount of medical news coverage on the physiological benefits of fasting. While research on the subject is still relatively new, it seems that fasting may help you lose weight, normalize insulin levels, boost the immune system, increase human growth hormone, spur cell regeneration, and extend longevity. In giving your body a break from processing food, fat stores are consumed for cellular energy and cells get a chance to go into repair mode - old and damaged ones are destroyed and new cells are generated. In the book, The Sacred Art of Fasting: Thomas Ryan explains that abstaining from food "gives the body a chance to renew itself. It is a time in which the body burns its rubbish. It's like house-cleaning day."
While the spiritual discipline of fasting isn't practiced primarily for reasons of physical health, these benefits shouldn't be entirely separated from its purpose either. We are not just bodies and we are not just spirits. We are "embodied spirits" or "enspirited flesh." That which is good for me, physically or spiritually, are both simply good for me. There is only one "me" to which it all comes back.

However, when we practice fasting as a spiritual discipline, the physical benefits become secondary to the spiritual gain, or a vehicle, if you will, to the spiritual. As Ryan puts it, "We manipulate the physical to gain access to the spiritual." The hunger of our stomach in seasons of fasting is meant to put us in touch with the hunger of our soul. Fasting provides physical sensations that point to spiritual realities.

Fasting alone can be undertaken without regard for one's spirit at all. This type of fasting does not rise to the level of being a spiritual discipline. This is why Jesus paired this discipline with prayer.

Discipline with Prayer

Sometimes we must empty ourselves in order to be filled, and fasting quickly reveals the things that control us. As a practice of self-denial, we are sharing in the communion of the Lord's own self-denial to the cross, and our fast becomes a declaration of our earnest desire to become more like Christ. Out of this sincerity of heart, communion with Christ becomes less hindered and our prayers can become more effective. Fasting adds both frequency and urgency to your prayers. Frequency, because each hunger pang can serve as a reminder to pray, and urgency, because the desire to eat heightens the desire to make known our deeper needs.

Some theologians would say that this kind of earnest persistence in prayer moves the heart of God, as in the parable of the woman seeking justice and the unjust judge in Luke 18. Other scholars would say, it simply repostures your heart to receive God's answers to you with more humility and receptiveness, enabling you to more clearly hear God's Word for you. Fasting can also cultivate gratitude and establish rhythms of abundance and absence. There is a Biblical pattern for fasting before a feast. Go without food for a while, and you're less likely to take food for granted. In this way, fasting also fosters solidarity with the needy, and a sense of dependence upon God as our source of life. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." - Matthew 4:4

Scripture

Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 9:14-17, Joel 2:12, Isaiah 58:6

Questions

What do you feel when you hear the word "fasting"? Is your response positive or negative? Why do you think that is the case?

Have you ever fasted from anything in the past? If so, what did you learn from the experience?

Read Matthew 4:1-11. Is it surprising to you that Jesus practiced fasting? Why or why not? How did Jesus' time in the wilderness prepare him for the mission God gave him?

Application

  • Intentionally prepare for a fast - mentally, physically and spiritually.

  • Consider your schedule, and how fasting will integrate with your interactions with others or your obligations for the day. If you are fasting from food, consider discussing it with your doctor to ensure you are healthy enough to undertake a fast.

  • Ask the Lord to prepare your heart.

  • Decide the parameters of your fast. In scripture, fasting is almost always referring to a break from food. However, fast" from anything in your life that's taking up more space, attention, power, or influence than you'd like.

  • This includes:
    - Any and all devices with screens (television; smartphone)
    - Sports or hobbies
    - Talking
    - Social media (or the internet altogether)
    - News
    - Music (altogether, or a certain kind)

  • Dedicate your fast to a spiritual purpose. Ask the Lord to give you a specific focus for your fast. It may be a time of deep personal reflection or seeking God's direction, a time of earnest intercession for a sick or spiritually destitute friend or family member, or perhaps a time to grieve or mourn a loss or anniversary of a loss.

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