About Fasting

[Willie T]

Actually, she was almost fanatical about fasting. I never really knew her all that well, but I remember the family considered her a little extreme.

 

[Uisdean]

I'm jumping in here...skimmed a couple of pages of this thread. If someone made this point then consider this a confirmation ...
Fasting replaced eating with prayer & study of the scriptures . Ancient people had to take a long time to create a meal. Fasting replaces daily routine. So...want to fast? Replace something in your daily routine. Replacing meat with fish was a good idea because it made the fasting person pay attention, if their heart was right. And a fast does not have to be 24 hours. You can replace Sunday Football (except for Steelers games ) with prayer & Study.
Could I propose a challenge? Fast once a week for a month & then report back here. I've been wanting to do this for some time. Now's the the time!

Okay... I just marked my calendar that my fasting report is due. 'Cause that's the only way I'll do it. Discipline by technology !!!

 

[Willie T]

I'm jumping in here...skimmed a couple of pages of this thread. If someone made this point then consider this a confirmation ...
Fasting replaced eating with prayer & study of the scriptures . Ancient people had to take a long time to create a meal. Fasting replaces daily routine. So...want to fast? Replace something in your daily routine. Replacing meat with fish was a good idea because it made the fasting person pay attention, if their heart was right. And a fast does not have to be 24 hours. You can replace Sunday Football (except for Steelers games ) with prayer & Study.
Could I propose a challenge? Fast once a week for a month & then report back here. I've been wanting to do this for some time. Now's the the time!

Okay... I just marked my calendar that my fasting report is due. 'Cause that's the only way I'll do it. Discipline by technology !!!

Yes, fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, “All things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting! When the disciples brought lunch to Jesus, assuming that he would be starving, he declared, “I have food to eat of which you do not know…. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (John 4:32, 34). This was not a clever metaphor, but a genuine reality. Jesus was, in fact, being nourished and sustained by the power of God. That is the reason for his counsel on fasting in Matthew 6. We are told not to act miserable when fasting because, in point of fact, we are not miserable. We are feeding on God and, just like the Israelites who were sustained in the wilderness by the miraculous manna from heaven, so we are sustained by the word of God.
(from: Celebration of Discipline)

 

[soul man]

Actually, she was almost fanatical about fasting. I never really knew her all that well, but I remember the family considered her a little extreme.

Yea, alot of those old timers believed in a 40 day fast. She was unique, peculiar maybe, a little before her time.
I knew a youngman of pretty good stature, a karate guy, got saved. Sometime after he did a 40 day, I ran into him and was afraid to ask I didn't know what happened to him, but he went from 200 lbs to maybe 120, I was shocked.