“Solitude and silence, fasting and frugality, study and worship, service and submission—and other practices that serve in the same way (there is no complete list)—are therefore integral parts of any reliable program of spiritual formation. They should be a substantial part of our private lives and of our associations with others in the body of Christ. They do not earn merit, but they do allow us to receive from God what will not be passively bestowed. They are not righteousness but wisdom.” — The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship by Dallas Willard
An effective fast is not about simply depriving yourself of food for a few days and then going back to your old way of doing things: fasting is about a permanent lifestyle change.
Take for example Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. That season of fasting marked a transition into an entirely different dimension of living and ministry for Jesus. When he walked into the desert on day-1 of his fast he was still “the Carpenter from Nazareth” but forty days later he was the tested and proven Messiah ready to begin his ministry and his journey to Calvary.
Daniel and his three friends provide another example but with a different focus. Jesus’s fast was a transition into a new and different future, Daniel and his friends used a fast to help them return to an old and better way of living (See: Daniel 1:3-16). They were being pressured to conform to a pagan culture that was in opposition to how they were called to live and they used a fast to help them get back to the way life was supposed to be lived.
In both cases, fasting was a tool of transition – a shock to the system – to assist in a permanent lifestyle change.
Fasting is about a permanent lifestyle change.
What about you? Is there a growing awareness that a change is needed in your life? Perhaps you drifted away from your best self – a long succession of almost unnoticed little compromises here and tiny justifications there and little by little you’ve drifted into a way of living that you know is not good for you.
Or maybe you’ve found yourself putting your dreams and ideals on hold. You know there’s a better you possible, but you’ve settled…settled for less.
Why not give your system a shock? Why not enter into a season of fasting? Let your hunger pains motivate you to reach for something more than what you’ve settled for. Why not let the emptiness opened up by not eating for a season motivate you to fill your life with something better?
Of course, it will not be easy; that’s why I refer to it as a shock to your system. But then again, has the system of living you’ve settled for really been working for you?
Prayer: Father God, what lifestyle changes do I need in order to transition into more productive, joyful, and fulfilling life? Show me and I will obey.
I will demonstrate my commitment by fasting for a season so that I can be nourished with the bread of heaven in preparation for the transition into the better life you’ve designed for my life.
The ONE THING 