Fasting Round 2

If you are fasting with us today read the previous blog entry for some instructions. Be aware of others who are fasting and our church. This partly an exercise of deciding who is boss in your life, your stomach or you. Jesus said, you can't serve two masters... So, this is about mastering your urges and deciding that God is going to be your master. Fasting takes practice just like any other discipline. Each time fast you will discover how to make it more meaningful. Take some time to pray, or slow down or find some time to read scripture. Feed on God's word.

If you have a medical condition that prevents you from fasting with out food you can modify your fast to make it safe.

Some may think fasting is not an discipline encouraged by the Reformed faith. Yet, John Calvin writes extensively on the practice of fasting. Here is an excerpt from "The Institutes of Christian Religion" by Calvin.

Let us now consider the purpose of fasting. Various designs are mentioned in Scripture. The first end in fasting is the denying of self, the bringing of our body and its lusts in subjection unto the will and Word of God. Said the Psalmist, "I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach" (Ps. 69:10). Before men, yes; but not so before God. Our Lord warned us, "Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness" (Luke 21:34). The body is made heavy, its senses dulled, and the mind rendered sluggish by much eating or drinking, and thereby the whole man becomes unfit for the duties of prayer and hearing of the Word. That this unfitness may be avoided and that the lusts of the flesh may be mortified and subdued, fasting is to be duly engaged in.

The second end of fasting is to stir up our devotions and to confirm our minds in the duties of hearing and prayer. In this connection it is to be duly noted that fasting and prayer are almost always linked together in the Scriptures, or it would be more correct to say "prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:21; Acts 13:3 and 14:23) to intimate that the latter is designed as an aid to the former, chiefly in that the non-preparation and participation of meals leaves us the freer for uninterrupted communion with God. When the stomach is full, the body and mind are less qualified for the performance of spiritual duties. For this reason we are told Anna "served God with fastings and prayers," the design of the Holy Spirit being to commend her to our notice for the fervency of her spirit, which she evidenced in this manner.


Tomorrow morning you can break the fast with break-fast. (that is where the word comes from)

Blessings!

Here is something to chew on.