Fasting - Day 2

We are 3 days away from the beginning of our Mission trip to Haiti.  We have decided as a group to fast at least two times before the trip.  Tomorrow is our second time.  I was reading the chapter on fasting in Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline.  This book was published in the late 70’s yet the similarities to our present day are not too far off.  He begins the chapter saying, “In a culture where the landscape is dotted with shrines to the Golden Arches and an assortment of Pizza Temples, fasting seems out of place…” (41.)  We can add to that many more images that signal to our brains a we-can’t-have-enough-food message so compelling that creates a constant struggle to indulge and feel guilty or diet and take control until we can give in again.  Yet fasting is not about controlling what you eat in order to overcome the marketing of the food industry but according to Foster, “Throughout Scripture fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes” (42).  This spiritual centeredness is what we are seeking through the next 24 hours.  Foster gives many examples of fasting in the Bible and some of the examples highlight group fasting, which is what we are doing.  The example that I would like to share with you comes from Ezra 8:21-23.  Ezra has the privilege to lead his people back to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  Instead of asking for protection from the powerful army of the king, he says in v. 21 “I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions…” and in v.23 he concluded, “So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”  As we prepare for our journey we pray that we can be humble ambassadors of Christ, that we can trust our children and our possessions to Him and that we can give Him all the honor and glory through our time away from home.  If you have a condition like diabetes, or heart disease or are expecting, you should not fast.  But we can all have a praise in our lips, a song in our hearts, a scripture verse in our mind, and an attitude of “…righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17.)

By Dolly