Fasting is a powerful tool to bring anything in your life that holds power over you back into subjection. It is that choice to refuse something, even something good, that removes its power over your decision making. The call to fast is what Paul voiced in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, we run our race to win an incorruptible prize. In order to run well, we must exercise self control and bring our body under subjection to the Holy Spirit. We are called to empty our lives of excess and pursue the filling of the Spirit of God. (Eph 5:18)
In this vein of understanding, we can find good in all forms of fasting. Food, sugar, carbs, caffeine, social media, news, video games, television, and anything else which resists the submission to the Spirit of God should all go through periods of fasting – not because they are inherently sinful (though our use of them may be), but because we must abstain from even good things to promote true submission to God.
This is the purpose of sexual abstinence within the bond of marriage. For even what God has created as good can claim too much control over us. Marital sex is good, (Genesis 2:24, Hebrews 13:4) but there is value in choosing to set aside something good to pursue what is Holy. Abstinence, like fasting, promotes contentment. For when we have our fill of what we want, we seek more and pursue extremes like sexual gluttons. But when we have, for a time, turned away our fleshly desires we find again joy in simplicity. Setting aside your right to sexual intimacy promotes emotional intimacy and vulnerability bringing restoration and healing to aspects of ourselves and our marriage as a result. If you find your marital bliss waning and lifeless, let me encourage you to consider a time of abstinence. It may be the match which resparks the light of passion in your marriage.
Read and meditate on 1 Timothy 6:3-10 and Hebrews 13:5-6.
Yielding Prayer
Father, teach me to be content. Please reveal to me now any area of my life that I am given over to greed, covetousness, or excess. (Pause and let Jesus speak) Please forgive me for my avarice and pursuit of the world. I choose to lay aside these weights so that I may run with patience the race that is set before me.
(As I prayed for my readers, I felt led to prompt some unusual but specific fasts, in addition to the types of fasts mentioned above, for you to consider doing with the Lord’s confirmation.)
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- Fast from spending any money on yourself
- Fast from drinking anything but water
- Fast from complaining
- Fast from bodily hygiene (Dan 10:3)
- Fast from listening to music/tv/podcasts (embrace silence)
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