Fasting and Prayer

for my other "Problematic" Bible Study peeps

This is why I’m actually here

If you’re finding me organically, the context isn’t going to make sense, but hopefully the contents will be general enough to be of use to you. But I actually finally pulled the trigger (i.e. hit a series of buttons) on setting up a “publication” as the Stack of Subs calls it, to go into a little more depth on something I’ve been talking about over at Caroline Dooner’s Problematic Bible Study, which, as of October 10, 2023, you can still join.

That’s the specific group context, but the global context is extremely important. A week into our study, bloodshed and terror unfolded in Israel and we find ourselves, a group of women from every shade and stage of faith, faced with a moment of grave spiritual significance. As we discussed the idea of fasting and praying together through this time, we discovered a lot of us have varying degrees of understanding, experience and desire when it comes to fasting.

I’m not an expert, but I read a lot. Like a lot. Arguably too much. And I just happen to be at the tail end of Scot McKnight’s book “Fasting,” having grappled with my own questions about the practice, which also led me to spend more time on this topic in my scripture reading.

Many writers, better writers, writers with far greater authority, have tackled this topic and I’ll try to link to some resources, but for this specific group, I think I have an idea of what our main questions and concerns boil down to and I’d like to go into a little more depth than I can do in the comments.

Problematic ladies (lol) this is for us.

If you have struggled with disordered eating or have been steeped in diet culture, you may want to proceed with caution. This type of fasting is a spiritual discipline and is a completely different entity from any type of diet, but if the idea of food restriction is triggering for you, I urge you to contemplate a non-food abstinence and return to this when it feels safe for you.

Fasting vs. Abstinence

I’ve certainly seen the word “fasting” assigned to activities like taking a break from social media, giving up a distracting show for awhile, or giving up something else besides food, and that is a pretty effective way of communicating your intent, so I’m not here to split hairs. However, for the purpose of clarity, I’m going to refer to “fasting” as abstaining from food and I’ll use “abstinence” to refer to taking a break from non-food things.

When it comes to fasting, there are several “flavors”—possibly a poor choice of words.

There are absolute fasts, which mean abstaining from any food or water for a period of time. There are spiritual applications for this in many faith traditions, but this is not something I’ll be going into more because I don’t think it is going to be applicable for this setting.

A water fast refers to partaking only of water for a prescribed amount of time. A juice fast is an option for someone who wants to abstain from food but still might need some calories to keep blood sugar steady, keep energy up for work, or for longer term fasts.

Another type of fast from food could be abstaining from a certain type of food. You may have heard of someone giving up chocolate for lent, or skipping meat on Mondays, etc.

There’s rich history around fasting, and this is far from a complete list, but I think it’s useful to establish some shared language so we can all be on the same page.

Spiritual Fasting

McKnight describes fasting, ideally, as a “natural and inevitable response when you and I encounter a grievous sacred moment” for a person with an embodied faith. (More on that later). If you have grown up in the church at large, or around churchy people, you may have an idea that fasting is used as a tool to have our prayers answered. And, honestly, sometimes it does have that result. But the point of fasting is not transactional. It is a response.

Think of how, when you have lost a close loved one, often you just can’t eat. Don’t want to eat. Can’t imagine eating. It may not play out that way, but I think we have all experienced something so big and terrible that it impacts our appetites in one way or another.

There are many types of spiritual fasting, too. Some can take on more of a “self discipline” angle, it can be a useful tool in personal or corporate repentance, can be a form of worship, can be a part of the church calendar or liturgical year, and so on, ad infinitum. But because we are inspired by the “grievous sacred moment” playing out in our time with God’s people, I’m specifically approaching this from the angle of a “responsive” fast. I’d love to nerd out on the various practices at another time, though, make no mistake. Just not today.

I grew up with parents who fasted and prayed at times, but they took Matthew 6:16-18 really seriously and did not advertise it, even to us kids:

¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Did we just read the original “girl, wash your face”? Fasting is a private concern between us and God, and I think it’s important to hold that close, but for our purposes, we are engaging in “corporate” fasting and prayer, meaning it is something we are doing together, and within that, it is safe to talk about it especially as we are all learning! That said, there IS a foreseeable outcome where folks might feel like they’re not giving up “enough” compared to someone else, or where we might feel compelled to be the most pious, most godly faster in the group. I don’t imagine there will be much of that for us, but let’s be sure to guard our hearts from those lines of thinking, and if they come up (and they might, that’s ok!) let’s take them to God in prayer.

Fasting Specifics

With that preface, I’ll offer a few examples of how this group effort might look for an individual:

Susie Q is fasting between breakfast and dinner. She abstains from anything besides water, black coffee, or herbal tea after breakfast until she literally breaks her fast at her evening meal, and her feelings of hunger remind her to pray.

Miss Molly isn’t going to have her morning cup of joe until she has done her morning prayers.

Valerie is abstaining from listening to podcasts or audiobooks while she goes on her daily walk, does the dishes, cooks her meals etc, and instead spends that time in prayer.

Waltzing Mathilda removes TikTok and Instagram from her phone, and every time her “autopilot” sends her thumb looking for those icons, she remembers to turn toward God and pray.

All of these have the common characteristic of disrupting our natural patterns of life just enough to remind us of our intentions to focus on Jesus, prayer, and reflection. They all hone our focus and keep us from falling into the complacency of everyday life.

What fasting is not

For our purposes, let’s also address what we don’t want to do with this fast. First of all, and this probably goes without saying, don’t turn this into a diet. This isn’t intended to help us give up a habit that we might want to shake, to help us lose weight, or become calm and controlled like monks, any more than it is a transaction to get what we want, or even what we think we need. In fact, it is not about the outcome at all.

If fasting is a response, then it is not: a tool, a magic trick, a formula, a diet, or…you know…witchcraft. Here’s another helpful illustration from “Fasting”.

Let’s say that A= a grievous or sacred spiritual moment, B= responsive fasting, and C= an outcome. A+B sometimes = C. It’s a fact, and I can’t deny it, and if you go looking, you’ll find stories of such. But A + B does not mean God owes us C. C is possible. C is a blessing. But C is not our goal. A is the catalyst, B is the goal.

In this specific situation, the situation in Israel is A. We have certainly witnessed other moments of grave spiritual significance in our lifetimes, but on a global level, and within a spiritual context, I am pretty sure this is the most significant moment I’ve witnessed in my adult life, or at least in my awareness. Many of us expressed that our hearts were crying out to do something, anything. That is our soul crying out for us to respond. Our response may be B, a spiritual fast. Of course, we are going to plead with God for mercy and healing for the people impacted by these horrors, and that is right and proper. We just need to be clear that we aren’t fasting to get God to do what we want. We are fasting or abstaining because we need to feel our patterns disrupted by such a horrific series of events. C is God’s problem, priority, and pleasure. He will use our efforts for good, because He is good.

Embodied faith

An important caveat, I think, is that this may feel more or less natural to us, depending on how we carry our faith. This is a rich and complex topic that I love, and may go into more in a future post, but for our purposes today, this will be just a quick explanation.

We western Christians tend to be pretty dualistic, meaning we think of our faith as something that takes place in our minds and souls (or spirits), and separate from our physical bodies. In truth, the fact of resurrection tells us we are so much more than animated “meat suits” running Soul Software. But so much of the world, and even many faith communities, treat it as such that it’s no wonder we have internalized that.

Fasting or abstinence allows us to engage in prayer, grieving, worship, and spiritual discipline as whole people, bodies and souls intertwined as God made us. The point is not to suffer specifically, but if we suffer a little, we are joining in Christ’s suffering. If our patterns are disrupted, we may join our brothers and sisters in around the world whose lives are disrupted by evil.

Carrying on

There’s a lot I’m sure I missed, but remember that most of us are engaging in this as newbies, and it’s not just ok to start small and manageable—it is appropriate and responsible. We can draw closer to God, and join with believers around the world to offer up our prayers with or without fasting or abstinence, but if you feel like God is drawing you into this, you can ask Him to show you how you should engage. You can also ask a trusted peer who follows Jesus, and we can help each other here on Substack, in the comments, or in the Bible Study threads. I don’t have all the answers, but I do have Google, a stack of Bibles, and people smarter than me to ask, so I can try to help too.

A closing prayer

Heavenly Father,

We love You, we trust You, and we know that You are present, but our hearts are hurting and our minds cannot fathom this evil. Your people are suffering, and You are suffering with them, and even now we are confident that You are showing them mercy in ways that may be private and personal, but profound. We trust that You will complete the work that You started and that one day our entire broken world will be redeemed. Your beloved son, Jesus, died for our sins, to bring Your Kingdom to earth. Grant us glimpses of Your Heavenly Kingdom here on earth, Dear Lord. Accept our sacrifices and prayers, and be glorified.

Without You, our efforts are fruitless and empty. WithYou, all things are possible. Bless us, and protect us, comfort us and draw us nearer to You.

Thank You for the ways You are working in the world and in our lives and in the spiritual realms where we cannot see. We adore You, and we want to be more like You. Shape our broken efforts to Your purposes, and bind our wills toYours.

In the Name of Father, Jesus, Your Son, and the Holy Spirit, we ask all of this. Amen.