Creatures of Habit: FastingSample

Fasting: The Holiness of the Habit 

I have had the honor of spending many weekends worshipping and preaching in prisons. My years spent with men and women in prisons were special and helped shape my understanding of grace and trust. Each weekend when the service was done, our team would almost always go enjoy a big meal together. The food was especially enjoyable because I was usually breaking a fast. 

When I first started going into the prisons, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to fast beforehand. I was so hungry to be used by God and be emptied of myself. Each hunger pang was a reminder that God’s grace is sufficient.

But as we read on Day 3, there are hang-ups with fasting. For a season, my fasting drifted into a transactional effort. If I fasted surely God’s presence would be with me in a greater way? My understanding of fasting went off track. 

God directed the prophet Isaiah to warn Israel about their twisted view of fasting. 

“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” (Isaiah 58:3).

Their fasting shifted from an obedience experience that cultivated humility and intimacy with God into a tool intended to obligate God to bless them. The chapter even describes their ungodly behavior as they outwardly obeyed God’s call to fast.

True fasting isn’t a self-righteous “hunger strike” to manipulate God’s favor. It’s a means to humble us, awaken spiritual cravings, and bear good fruit. True fasting produces fruit like humility, generosity, and a desire to serve others. 

In Isaiah 58 the intended fruit of fasting is loosening the chains of injustice, setting the oppressed free, sharing food with the hungry, providing shelter for the wanderer, and clothing those in need. Fasting is not for show or manipulation. And it is not just “a day” for the Lord. The intent is that this posture of humility, dependence, and service is for life! 

As we run to God in our emptiness, we’re filled by His Spirit to live a godly life. 

• Have you ever thought fasting could obligate God to do what you ask?
• What rich fruit can God produce in your life through fasting?

Read from Isaiah 58:1-12 and think about the good fruit that can come from our fasting.