A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting for Show

posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Feb. 11 - Fasting for Show

As I was checking the references for the other types of fasts, I ran across another aspect to fasting that I hadn't really considered, and I thought perhaps I should at least mention it.

Not all fasting is good. Or, perhaps a better way to put it would be that, as with any other faith-related activity, it's quite possible for it to become religious rather than responsive. Done in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, fasting is at best, an exercise in self-control. Worse than that is when fasting is used as a means to attempt to manipulate God.

For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking one another with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast that is acceptable to the LORD? -- Is. 58:2 - 5


Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?' " - Zech. 7:4-5


"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." - Matt 6:17

And don't forget the Pharisee who went to the temple and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' -- Lk 18:11 - 12, but who did not receive anything from God.

As we have seen in the past month, fasting has definite and powerful purposes. However, proving one's worth or value to God is not one of them; neither is proving one's spiritual superiority to others. Fasting cannot be substituted for a right heart attitude or humble obedience.

So, anytime I undertake a fast, one of the first things I must do is make sure my motives are right and my objectives are in line with the true purposes of fasting.

Otherwise, I might just as well go on a diet. ;)

Next week, I'll close this out with just some relevant thoughts that have occurred to me whilst venturing through these scriptures!