A Case for Fasting

Yesterday I was reading from Mark, Chapter Nine, and in that chapter Jesus cures a deaf and mute child, who suffers seizures as well, by casting out a demon/spirit.  The disciples had been unable to heal the child and asked why and Jesus provided the following answer - Mark 9:29 NIV: "He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer (and fasting). ”

As I was thinking about all the other things yesterday, I had a helpful analogy concerning fasting pop into my mind.  Recently we replaced the carpet in most of our house, and in doing so, uncovered a couple of issues that required repair.  One of them was a section where the floor had some rot.  I was thinking about the fact that if we hadn't replaced the carpet in that room, effectively stripping away the covering for the floor, we would not have seen this problem area.  Upon further inspection and cutting back the affected floor area, I realized that the problem also affected the nearby wall.  I was able to repair both, but it was only upon removing that which protected or covered those areas, that the problem was identified.

As I was thinking about the purpose of fasting, I felt like the Lord showed me that it can have basically the same purpose as removing the carpet.  Fasting involves removing things from our life so we can see what is really underneath and often unnoticed. Think of it as a self-selected pressure test of our life.

Usually in our life experience, when times of pressure and stress occur, that is when our underlying character is revealed.  Fasting is a way to self-test prior to real life pressure.  Personally I don't like tests, but the real reason for tests is to find out what we know, and what we don't know.  Areas of our life that need our attention sometimes are covered up by our daily activity and attention to other things, and thus unknown.  Fasting has a way of allowing us to uncover those areas.

Note, that it was reported that Jesus said both prayer and fasting was required.  We don't want to fast without the prayer, for we want the interaction with the Lord to guide us and direct us during our fasting.  Prayer is all about relationship with the Lord, and in this analogy we could think of Him as the master builder.  When we see things or uncover areas in our life, during fasting, we want to take them to the Lord to understand how to fix them.

In the case of my rotted floor and wall, I had to cut away the rotten areas and even some of the good areas so I could rebuild the sections with the correct support and strength.  In our lives, the Lord is constantly at work building us up and strengthening us so that when pressure comes we can stand.  I am reminded of a famous verse from Paul's letter to the  Ephesians 6:13 NIV:  "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

The original Greek word, translated 'day of evil' is poneros and it is defined as follows:

1)  full of labours, annoyances, hardships
    a) pressed and harassed by labours
    b) bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble

That sounds pretty much like pressure and stress!  We want to be strong, standing firmly on our faith, with no areas of weakness when we confront difficult times, and fasting is one of the tools the Lord provides us to enable this in our lives.

Finally, there is a question as to why this was Jesus' answer in reply to a question about a lack of authority?  Jesus simply points the way to grow in authority and strength, intimacy with the Father through prayer, and strengthening ourselves through fasting.  The stronger our relationship with the Lord, and the less problem areas we have, the more weight that we can bear, and the more the Lord can entrust to us, the more authority He gives us.  The Lord doesn't want us fighting battles against bigger and stronger opponents, and this demon was one of those, and so He encouraged the disciples to press into the Father through prayer and fasting.

So this morning I am encouraged to look at my life for areas of weakness and to make fasting something I embrace, for my own good. I am also further encouraged to press into relationship with the Lord through prayer, so that I might grow in intimacy and be trustworthy for greater authority.

Amen!