Romans 15:4 reminds us: For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. This verse is true in the life and account of the man Nehemiah. We have so much to learn from this godly individual who stepped out and stood up to follow God’s leading in his life! Nehemiah 1:4 records for us the response of Nehemiah as he sought an update on the remnant in Jerusalem and learned that things were not going as well as he had hoped. We looked at his first response last week—he wept and mourned for days. He also highlights for us his next response of fasting. Fasting has kind of become a sort of lost art in our day today. But we see the concept of fasting taking place all throughout the Scriptures. Jesus Himself spent 40 days in the wilderness for a time of fasting while He was tempted by Satan. The intentional withdrawal from food for a specific and intended purpose can be a very meaningful spiritual discipline in one’s life!
Why do we not practice this spiritual discipline today? The easy answer is probably that we are never told to. We are never specifically instructed to give ourselves to this spiritual discipline, though in a few passages Christ Jesus assumes His followers will fast. But in the Scriptures, we find commands to pray, admonitions to read God’s Word, and all sorts of regulations for church life. But what we do not find is a command to give ourselves to fasting. In fact, as we watch the New Testament progress into the church age and focus on God’s instructions to His gathered body, we find less and less accounts of fasting in the Bible. What does this mean for us? There is a difference between something that is regulative and something that is normative in Scripture. We do not find specific commands to give ourselves to fasting. But just because it is not given in Scripture with specific instructions, does not mean it is a bad or unnecessary practice. It is definitely a normative practice for God’s followers to forego food or other essential elements in order to focus on prayer, and we do see that this was a common part of how God’s people throughout Scripture expressed their challenging and seemingly impossible prayers to God.
Some might wonder why fast? Did not God give us food? Are we not to be good stewards of our body? Are we not manually interrupting the normal process of creation in that our bodies crave food? My answer would be yes and no. Yes, God gave us food, and we are to be good stewards, and God created us to eat. But the discipline of fasting reminds us of a greater purpose and intention for which we were created—God. We were created to glorify God and enjoy a relationship with Him. So yes, there is hunger, but this physical hunger should not be outmatched by our spiritual hunger for God Himself. Fasting reminds us of this. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus reminds us of the limitations of physical food when He says, “But He answered and said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’” We have a hunger that ought to be greater than our desire for physical sustenance—we are created to hunger for God! Obviously, fasting is not for everyone, and those who have medical or other issues that would make fasting from food dangerous for them should consider a different type of fast. But when we forsake something like food, what so many of us view as a core essential to our physical existence, our “bellies” are pointed to a different type of food that is essential to our spiritual existence—we are reminded that we were created to hunger and thirst for God!
What then is our takeaway from the example of Nehemiah? I find two principles for us, one more general and one more specific. Generally, it is important to have an intentional practice or method of pleading one’s case before the Lord. Nehemiah felt the plight of the remnant in Jerusalem, and he brought his case before the Lord in a sense of urgency and devotion through the discipline of fasting. This helped Nehemiah express to God how important this issue was in his own heart, but also allowed Nehemiah to focus on his prayers by connecting them to another practice that helped him to focus on the issue at hand. We can learn a lot from this practice! Sometimes we just need to do something to get away and get alone with God to help us focus on our relationship with Him and the requests we bring before Him. It could be any number of things—for me I like to “get alone with God” by taking a hike in the Nature Center and praying or listening to a sermon. But the point is this—when faced with his “impossible” prayer request, Nehemiah did more than just a random and quick “on the short drive into work” type of prayer request that we might tend to offer. Nehemiah was passionate enough about this issue that he focused on it intently in prayer. The more specific application from this passage is on fasting. Have you ever tried it? Fasting can be done in many different ways. It could be, like some examples in Scripture, that you go an extended period of time without food in an effort to give yourself to intercessory prayer before the Lord. It could be something smaller—I have participated in a fasting effort where I did not eat lunch during the weekdays and instead focused on prayer during that time. I do not even believe that fasting necessarily has to be a fast of food—one could commit to a fast of sleep where one stays up late or gets up early for a period of time in order to focus specifically on matters of prayer. Regardless of the method practiced, the discipline can be spiritually enriching and encouraging as you pour out your requests before a holy sovereign God and commit to waiting for Him to act. Whether you do it through fasting or some other practice, we all need those times where we get away with God and lay our hearts out before Him. Whatever this looks like for you, I pray that you will make a special focus this week to get alone with God in a manner that helps you to minimize distractions and focus on your relationship with your heavenly Father and interceding for the matters you would bring to Him! If you would like to know more about fasting, I found the following article to be informative:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/sharpen-your-affections-with-fasting
