How to fast badly!

Unfortunately, king Saul features high up in the list of those who got things wrong in scripture.

On one occasion this Israelite king told his soldiers to fast on a day of battle. Unsurprisingly his troops weren’t too happy about it!

All kinds of silly and odd things happened as a result and Saul even tried to sentence his son Jonathan to death – despite Jonathan being the hero of the battle! Why? Because Jonathan was hungry. He saw some honey and ate it to strengthen him for the battle. A wise decision. It’s all described in 1 Samuel 14:24-46.

Saul tried to force his men to fast believing that he could secure the outcome of the battle by getting spiritual assistance from God through a bold and heroic gesture!

But fasting is never about manipulation. Fasting is never a way of twisting God’s arm to get what we want. It is never about pressurising God to fix situations in our lives in the way we want. It’s about getting his will done, not ours.

A very different mistake over the matter of fasting is described in Zechariah 7 & 8. But at least those people who’d been practicing fasting for decades had the sense to ask the prophet if what they were doing was REALLY what God wanted. You can read about Zechariah’s wonderful reply in Zechariah 7:1-7 and 8:18-19

What do we learn from these stories?

• Fasting is never about pressurising God to do what we want.
• Fasting is not about putting on some impressive performance for God.
• It is never about exerting human effort in order to manipulate the outcome.
• Ironically fasting is about slowing!

Slowing down and walking at God’s pace so our step is in step with his step. And then listening; learning from him, taking time to focus on him and what he wants and what he does.

And that’s when his power begins to kick in!