Fasting - Get It Right!

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. [Isaiah 58.1-4]

You know, God doesn't really care whether we miss a meal or not. Besides, many have made fasting little more than a religious way to lose weight.

In fact, God doesn't really care whether we go to church all the time. Too often our only real concern is that we make a good show.

What God cares about are the people we oppress through fighting and quarreling. And the thing is, it only takes one person in an argument to stop it.

Maybe we have looked at fasting all wrong. Maybe fasting isn't really about food. Maybe fasting is about something much greater...

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. [Isaiah 58.6-7]

Everything listed in Isaiah 58.6-7 is fasting not from food, but from self interests. Interestingly enough, food is mentioned however, not in regard to abstaining from it, but in regard to sharing it. It is "fasting" to share food with hungry people as if to eat with them (as opposed to just giving them food). We are, in contrast, told that "giving" shelter and clothes to the needy is appropriate. This all involves a selfless engagement with those in need. Going physically hungry is not necessarily the point, but doing something for others that we are not inclined otherwise to do, is.

Bottom line: fasting for selfish reasons is not fasting at all in God's eyes. The hardship and inconvenience of tending to other's needs IS fasting.

The best way, at least in my life, to know I am fasting for the wrong reason is exactly what Isaiah said it is, the presence of fighting and quarreling. Fighting and quarreling, in the context of fasting, is NOT (as is popularly believed among religious folks) the devil trying to discourage us, but instead, is God's way of telling us through our own actions that we are focused on ourself and not others with our fast. 

"Ouch."

Fasting is NOT about me - it's about others.

Isaiah then gives us an idea what results when we fast correctly:

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the LORD will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. [Isaiah 58.8-9]

Salvation, healing, godliness, and protection come to us when we fast for others. Why then would we ever think we should fast for ourselves? The reason is gross, uncontrolled, self-centeredness.

Again, "ouch!"

Father, help me to change my thinking about fasting. Help me to get it right. I will know when I do because those things I need will be taken care of.