I have often wondered about the spiritual discipline of fasting, and when I say wondered I usually mean realised I should do it more and then quickly made up reasons why I shouldn't or other things to think about so that I don't have to go without food or something else.
Every now and again someone comes up to me and tells me what a huge difference they have seen in their life since they have fasted, or I hear a sermon/ read an article about it and I the train of thinking starts. “Of course I should fast, I know that it something I should do, I know it goes along with prayer and I believe that it will be a good thing to do. BUT...” the train of thinking starts “I'm still underweight, I should wait till I'm gaining weight again/I can't do it on Monday, I need to fast in secret and on Monday everyone will know I'm fasting...so I should...oh I’ll work out when to fast later [later never comes]./ oh no! I've eaten a tiny amount of food! That's ruined today’s fast. I'll just have to cancel today’s and start again next week (repeat ad nausium until I have forgotten that it's even a day of fasting)/
I think one of the main problems for me with fasting is that it is so contrary to what culture tells me about food and what I want to believe about food. See although I am usually under what is a healthy weight for my height, I LOVE food. I enjoy all different types of food and tastes and I think the saying “the way to a man's heart is through his stomach” was written about me. So the idea of choosing not to eat really doesn't sit well with me. Having said this I know that we actually don't need 3 meals a day, and that you can easily go for a day without eating and feel no side effects what-so-ever [apart from some bad breath].
I sometimes use the excuses that I have a bad memory and keep forgetting that I am fasting...and it can kind of work for the morning when I have just woken up and slip into auto-eat mode but certainly not during the day. At this point when I Feel hungry I know it is because I haven't eaten and I know this is because I am fasting. Yet despite this I still find myself accidentally breaking my fasts.
If you had read my post about date night then maybe you can see the similarities here. Maybe I’ve been thinking too much about how I feel and about how I am tired/hungry and want some quick relief rather than about spending time thinking/concentrating on God. Maybe [probably] I have become to infected with worldly thinking that OF COURSE I should have three meals a day. Most probably I know that God will still be there if I choose not to carry out on what I decided upon. Really it is a case of taking grace for granted and not appreciating how good it is to spend time with God. When ever I do fast I feel the difference and I am so glad that I did, and yet next week the same old excuses rear their heads out of the ground.
I don't know if you feel the same but it does seam that the modern church really doesn't fast at the moment. Maybe this is my own blind experience but I hear so few sermons on fasting that It really surprises me. Admittedly Jesus and Paul talk about other things more but still how often do you hear fasting mentioned at church.
For further reading on reasons to fast etc see the links bellow. [most nicked from this post]
