Feasting on God in Prayer
Zechariah 7:1-5
"Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me--for Me?
(Zechariah 7:5 NKJV)
INTRODUCTION
Heike and I have been at a few weddings in the last year. One wedding we went to was on my birthday. I like weddings here in Germany. There are some similarities, but the Germans do more on the wedding day. It really is a festival with the ceremony, and then coffee and cake, a couple of games for the guests and then a big huge meal. The meals is always well made. In essence a feast is prepared.
We went to this wedding and after the ceremonies, we went to a hall to have the coffee and cake. The program started and it was really good. Then half-way through the program these little children came into the room shouting: “Wo ist Jim, wo is Jim?” They were singing “Where is Jim?” - I thought to myself: “What kind of song is this?” Then I realized that they had a birthday cake prepared. I was so embarrassed. I told the bride and groom that it was their special day. They said that it was my birthday.
So they set the cake before me. But the kids were close, I couldn’t really move. So I tried to blow out the candles, when “Poof” one of the girl’s dresses caught on fire. So immediately someone came and stopped the fire on the poor girl’s arm sleeve.
How embarrassing is that? You go to someone’s wedding, and when the bride and groom try to do something for you, it turns it to a fire accident. The girl’s dress goes up in flames and she had some slight burn on her arm for a week. But the food was good. The ceremony was nice. The wedding was great and unforgettable. This experience describes the idea of a feast very well. Laughter, good food, good friends, even surprises that are never dull. That is the meaning of a feast.
When someone has a feast, they literally stuff themselves full of good food. When you participate in a feast, you are taking time to ENJOY the time you have set aside for yourself. You enjoy a good meal, you enjoy good music, you enjoy good friends, and you basically enjoy a good time. It lifts you up and after the feast you are completely satisfied.
You have feasted. It is an enjoyable experience and your body shows it. Your body starts to digest more food. Your mouth starts to hum or whistle the good music you heard, and you reflect on your conversations and experiences during the feast.
Fasting is feasting on God in prayer.
The problem in Zechariah’s time is that the people fasted for themselves. They cried, they mourned, they stopped eating because they were so focused on their own problems that they begged God to help them.
One one hand, they cried to God to help them in their distress. On the other hand, they pleaded with God out of fear. They feared His judgment. Why? Just as God said, they were not feasting on God. They were thinking about what they could get out of their prayer time.
Prayer times can often be this way. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. I need this, and I need that. So God, you owe me and I need your help. The focus of the prayer time is often on yourself.
God doesn’t want you to fast like that.
Sometimes, we fast from food, or something that we crave for a couple of days because it makes us look good with other people. Someone asks you: “What are fasting from?” You tell them - "I am not going to eat chocolate." Of course that doesn’t stop you from eating other sweets, and it isn’t really a fast. You are just showing off. You are displaying your spirituality to the world.
But what about God? This is God’s point.
Did you really fast for Me--for Me?
For whom did you fast? Was it for yourself, for your spiritual self-esteem? Did you do it for someone else? God says: Do it for Me.
Fasting needs to be feasting on God in prayer.
The question is one that Christians ask quite often. They ask themselves, just as the people in the time of Zechariah asked themselves:
Should I fast?
In reality, everyone fasts at least once a day. You have just fasted last night before you ate breakfast. This is the meaning of the word breakfast (to break the fast). You have slept all night and now to break your fast, you eat a small meal.
So the question is not "Should I fast?", but "When should I fast?"
The people were asking if they should continue to fast the same way they have been fasting for years. They had been fasting for 70 years, while they were in exile. They were fasting and weeping to remind themselves of the destruction of the Temple. They would take a time in the month and they would memorialize this event in the lives of Israel.
They took time in one month of the year to mourn and fast.
Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1).
Paul fasted for a short time while making a vow.
Daniel fasted from rich foods for 10 days (Daniel 1:12).
Esther and her friends fasted for 3 days and nights (Esther 4:16)
There are many different examples of fasting in the Bible. There is no one specific method. You can fast for a day or you can fast for a week. You can fast from rich foods or you can fast from food altogether.
Just like every tradition that happens for a long time period, the meaning got lost. While in the beginning, the people were mourning the loss of the Temple, now they were just mourning. While in the beginning, the people were fasting as a way to ask God to help them, now it became a ritual.
And ritual without reason is meaningless. This is the key to understanding how I should fast.
How should I fast?
STEPS TO FASTING FOR A PURPOSE
1. Look to a challenging decision that needs to be made.
Fasting is not for every occasion. We are to pray for every occasion, but fasting is reserved for very important decisions. Fasting is way to prepare yourself spiritually for a challenging decision that needs to be made. Perhaps you want to move. Perhaps you want to start a family, or get married. When you see that you have to make a decision about a direction your life may take, you can fast. You need to fast for a purpose. When you do, you will receive more wisdom from God than when you regularly pray.
2. Desire to ask God for help in dealing with this decision.
Fasting is setting aside physical pleasures to seek God’s pleasure about a matter. Therefore when you fast, you want to pray to God regularly during this time. You don’t just stop doing something. You take the time you would use doing that something (for which you have fasted - or stopped), and you spend that time with God.
For example, suppose you say: I will fast from television for a week. This is a good way to fast. You are setting aside the physical pleasure to the mind and eyes of what is on the screen. What are you going to do during the times that you normally would watch television? You spend time in worship and prayer. Perhaps you read the Bible. Perhaps you spend time playing your guitar singing praises to God. Then you spend some time in prayer. The point is clear. You don’t just stop doing something. You replace the time spent doing something else with time you give to God.
Now you can’t say: I am going to fast from television, but I will spend that time playing tennis. You have to give that time to God. That is the whole point of the fast.
3. Set aside a time, place, and object of your fast.
Ask yourself "when" you want to fast. Decide how long the fast should take place. Then decide what you want to fast from. The fasting object should be something that really takes you away from God. The fast should be challenging. Fasting from chocolate is not enough. Fasting from all foods for a day would be challenging. Fasting from television for one hour is not enough. Fasting from TV for a week would be challenging. You can fast from the Internet for a week. The object of the fast can be anything that you really enjoy doing.
4. Fast from the object
When you have decided on the length of the fast, honor God by committing to your fast. God honors people who fast. God is a God who loves to keep commitments and He loves it when we keep our commitments to Him.
Some people say: I will make this vow or I will commit to this or that. Fasting does not have to be a public event. But you need to commit to the fast. Jesus warned against doing those things. He said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” Why did He say this? Because when you make a commitment, you need to stick to it. The same is true when you fast. Don’t just say you will fast. Do it.
5. Feast on God
But when you fast, you are to replace what you desire physically with spiritual nourishment - feasting on God. You need to be praying to God and you need to be worshiping God. God will reveal to you what you should do about this decision. He will be pleased with you because you set aside a special time for Him, and that you decided what was very important to you would be given to God.
Fasting is not to be just a time of separation from something. Fasting is a time to get closer to God. Fasting is where worship and prayer meet. That is how you need to look at fasting. Fasting is not just starving yourself. God is not a God who wants to starve his children like some prisoners in a concentration camp. God wants you to learn some self-control so that you can focus on Him. When you focus on Him through fasting, God honors it. You get a feast in a relationship with God. This spiritual food is what Jesus talked about. He said:
"I have food that you know nothing about." He was saying I don’t need spiritual food. He was saying that He has another food supply. God wants you to feast on this spiritual food supply. Enjoy your feast experience with Him.
