Fasting Is Not the Thing

Formation Is

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

“All I have to do is make it through this fast.” Doing that will accomplish your goal, but will it fulfill your purpose? If your only goal is to make it to the end, you’re just starving yourself. You aren’t meant to survive a fast. You’re meant to be changed by it.

So what is the fast, if not just an exercise in endurance?

We know it as the physical act of abstaining from food. For some, it’s a health reset. For Christians, it’s a sacred discipline to be used to seek God and deepen devotion.

But in all these cases, the physical act is merely the doorway. It is the entry point to the deeper work of formation.

Badge of Honor

It’s easy to get things twisted around. I’ve been there. I thought the hunger pangs were the point. I thought my empty stomach was the win.

I wore discipline like a badge of honor, a testament to my own willpower.

But God was not impressed by my feeble ability to go days without food. My grumbling stomach or caffeine withdrawal did not move Him.

He was looking for something much deeper, something that moved beyond my own personal piety.

Isaiah had a Word for people who were really good at fasting but were missing the point entirely.

They were going through all the right motions.

They were humbling themselves.

They were putting on a good show.

But God’s response through Isaiah was a decisive reality check. “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen?”

Ouch. That stings a little, doesn’t it? It cuts right through our religious performances and gets to the heart of the matter.

God is not interested in a fast that is all about us.

He is not interested in a fast that is a private, spiritualized transaction between us and Him. (As if that were really possible.) The fast He has chosen is outward.

It is active.

It is messy.

It is a fast that changes our spiritual lives and the world.

Reality Check

So, what does this God-chosen fast look like? Isaiah lays it out with wonderful clarity. Not only does He want us to abstain from food but also to break the chains of injustice and loose the yoke of oppression.

This is not a passive activity. It is a call to get our hands dirty in the fight for justice. It is a call to see the world as it is, broken and hurting, and to do something about it.

I remember when I realized this. I had “performed” several fasts, and each time it was about making it through. Sure, I would pray, but my mind was on the pangs.

I had been on this one particular fast for four days. So, the pangs were evident. As I was praying to make it through, God broke in and asked, “Is this all you think I want to accomplish with you?”

At first, I thought He meant with my life. Later, I realized He was referring to the fast. So, I did the only thing a Christian can do in that situation. I went to the Word. It was then that I found Isaiah 58. This guidance has transformed every fast since.

From Complacency to Compassion

Fasting can produce the heart change, in us, essential to providing the courage to proclaim what needs proclaiming in this world of darkness.

Every successful fast draws us closer to God, slowly transforming us into greater agents of light.

As a result, our hearts start breaking for the things that break God’s heart. We begin to open our eyes to the injustice and oppression that we have so often been ignoring.

This moves us from a place of comfortable complacency to a place of active compassion.

The fast God chooses is not just about breaking chains.

It is also about building up.

It is about sharing with the hungry and providing for the poor.

It is about seeing the needs of those around you and meeting them with intentional generosity.

Recognizing that the person in need is not an inconvenience or a project but one who bears the image of God. They are your own flesh and blood. They are your brother and your sister. And when you hide yourself from them, you are hiding yourself from God.

Training Ground

This is the true work of formation. It is the process of becoming:

a person who loves what God loves and hates what God hates.

a person who is not content to simply survive the fast, but who is determined to be changed by it.

a person who is not just a consumer of God’s grace, but a conduit of it.

And the promise for those who embrace this kind of fast is breathtaking.

Isaiah says that when we live this way, our light will break forth like the dawn. Our healing will quickly appear. Our righteousness will go before us, and the glory of the Lord will be our rear guard. We will call, and the Lord will answer. We will cry for help, and He will say, here am I.

This is not a transactional relationship. It is a transformational one.

It is not about doing good things to get good things from God. When we embrace the purpose of fasting, we transform into individuals who naturally perform good deeds, overflowing with God’s goodness into our surroundings.

This involves cultivating such profound harmony with God’s desires that you inevitably become involved in His efforts to restore and renew.

So the next time you feel the hunger pangs of a fast, don’t just think about what you are giving up.

Think about what you are becoming and what you are being called to.

Don’t just think about making it to the end. Don’t just survive the fast.

Let it change you.

Let it break you.

Let the hunger pangs be a reminder, not of your piety, but a reminder to pray, by name, for a specific injustice in your community. Let them prompt you to give to one organization working to feed the hungry. Let it make you a little more light shining in the darkness.

The fast God has chosen is not a waiting room. It is a training ground. What will you practice today? Formation is the thing.