Practice: Fasting

Each Saturday during Lent, we will take some time as a church family to practice a different spiritual discipline or spiritual practice together. Today, we are practicing fasting with Pastor of Worship & Prayer, Femi Ibitoye.

What is Fasting?

Fasting is woven into the season of Lent, which in and of itself is a time for withholding as we prepare for the abundance of Easter. In a culture of abundance and one-click buying, we don’t have a lot of practice in saying “no” to ourselves. Fasting is one way to learn to say “no” to ourselves so we can say “yes” to God.

For the sake of this practice, think about fasting not as withholding food or drink, but as the practice of giving up something good (anything good!) in order to practice the spiritual discipline of self-control.

Why should we fast?

• Fasting helps us develop spiritual “fruit.” It develops our willpower and brings governance. Just like when an athlete develops muscles through practice and training so they can call on strength and muscle memory for game time, so, too, we are preparing to face the challenges of temptation when we say “no” to something small. 
• Fasting also makes room for God. Fasting is a spiritual discipline of abstinence that makes space for other spiritual disciplines of engagement. Oftentimes, we will find that someone gives up TV or their phone, or a game, or something trivial for Lent, and in doing so they are fasting from something that is time-consuming in order to redirect their time towards God. Fasting from our phones, or from an activity that may be “good” but isn’t “God” allows us to spend more time with our Creator.