As I welcome Lent into my life this year, I find it fitting to wrap up True Fasting with a third entry. This one relates to the lessons God has taught me on this topic since that morning in Port-au-Prince, Haiti when I was but a skinny 9-year old boy.
As I reflect back on all the subsequent seasons of fasting God has since allowed me to enter, I find that childhood moment with my family to be a pivotal marker on my journey of faith. It has taught me to see how much in common there is between true fasting and following Christ:
1. Spiritual Awareness
Daniel fasted for 21 days (see Daniel 10) and was given fresh insight by God. Like him, each time I fast, I am brought to a place of greater awareness of the evil forces that exist in the spiritual realm. Those forces of evil are diligently working to hinder Christ-followers from receiving His love and accepting His grace and truth. So, following Christ or true fasting is living in a surrendered manner to Christ's lordship which subdues the devil's schemes.
2. Costly Sacrifice
Like David said in 1 Chronicles 21, true fasting has opened my eyes to see that a sacrifice that costs nothing is no sacrifice at all -- it is fruitless, it is worth nothing. Following Christ has caused me to ask myself daily, "What personal loss am I to experience today, Lord?" Each costly sacrifice, then, intensifies my repentance in Christ's righteousness by giving me a broken and contrite heart.
3. Season of Preparation
The believers in Acts 13 worshipped and fasted until the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for a special ministry He had reserved for them. Likewise, God has revealed to me that the time spent fasting is a season used to set me apart for the work to which He has called me. It is used as a sign of humility, a weapon to combat spiritual warfare, a time to connect my heart with God's power, an act of willingness and readiness to receive the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom in my life.
Said guidance tells me that I am to:
* Preach the good news first in my behavior then with my words
* Be winsome in manner and speech
* Strengthen other Christ-followers
* Encourage people to remain true to the faith
* Testify about God's work in my life and the lives of others
* Commit disciples to the Lord
* Pray and fast continually until the Lord returns
4. Stripping off Unholy Garments
Prayer, this most intimate form of dialogue, is the communication that true fasting allows me to have with God who uncovers false motives and strips from my heart potential desires to appear holy and spiritual. Following Christ reveals a passionate Lover who has no use for any lofty word or imposing shrine I am tempted to throw into the mix. No amount of religious words can compensate for my clinging to worthless idols or treating others unjustly. True fasting has taught me that following Christ means to live a holy life in the freedom of Christ's righteousness.
So, back on that day of long ago, Papi and Manmie planted a seed of true fasting in the heart of their little 9-year old boy. I spent the rest of the day enjoying the time of worship my family had and when dusk came, I was truly famished. Yet, I was reluctant to let go of the new hunger that I began to feel -- a hunger for God Himself.
What a potent seed!
What a rich heritage!
What meaningful lessons and experiences!
What fruitfulness has been borne from true fasting!
Father, may my following You be the very essence of true fasting so that I may long after Your love which is the only satisfying meal for my hungry soul, the sole potion that infuses my spiritual veins with strength, the single water source that turns the baked clay of my heart into rich soil and a verdant field! Amen.
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