starve my pride: thoughts on fasting

  
This was an intended response to a post on fasting by Jon Acuff on Stuff Christians Like. Due to a network error I was unable to post this on his site, so I thought I'd put it on momentum and send him a link.


SCL Article Link
 
#722: Telling someone they shouldn't tell you about their fast.


Response:


There was a season that I felt called to a rhythm of  fasting...

This lasted for several months and consisted of one day each week where I would only drink water.  It was paired with some other times of intentionally focusing on God, and much good stuff came out of it, but something came out of it that I did not expect.  Due to the nature of this ongoing weekly interruption, and the fact that at the time I had an extremely busy social calender, which often times meant going out to eat or at minimum drinking some good beer... It was inevitable that over time this would be something that caught my friends attention. 

... and it did.

What resulted was a great series of conversations about the spiritual discipline of fasting.. reasons for it, ways to do it, biblical examples of it.. etc. etc.  What made this even more interesting was that it was a completely new topic for some of my friends.  So anyhow, a while after that season had passed and fasting was nowhere in my mind because quite a bit of time had gone on.. I met up with some of my friends.. which, as I sad earlier.. often times means food and drink.  as we were enjoying the night I noticed that one of my friends didn't order, when I asked if she wasn't hungry, she responded "This is one of the days I am fasting".. which made me smile and think for a second. 

I think that we are intentionally living our lives to honor God, there will be things that happen that impact the lives of others around us.  If these are things that bring glory to God, it would be a shame for them to be hidden or not addressed for some false sense of  "spiritual preservation" or "humility".  If the reason you don't share you are fasting is to appear humble.. guess what.. that is pride.  Your focus has gone straight to yourself, which is the same thing that is addressed when scripture says not to draw attention to your appearance when you fast.. so you have simply slapped a different coat of paint to the same core issue... 

... which is attention being directed to man rather than God.

If God chooses to use your gifts, practices, or life to draw attention back to Himself so he receives Glory, we shouldn't be stopping this because of our own pride or our fear that people will view us as not being "humble".  When we walk out our call to Christ in boldness and humility, intentionally keeping our eyes focused on the Lord and our paths straight, we will impact our lives and the lives of others... and it is only fair that God receives the glory that He deserves for the life He has brought you into.

Summary:

So... my response...

If you revealing your fast brings God glory, use discernment and share about it if it is appropriate.

If you are not sharing about your fast for a false sense of "humility", reconsider who your focus is on, because it is likely that your are putting yourself and your public "christian" image before God.

If you are sharing about your fast for selfish reasons.. Congratulations!  You just figured out something more to struggle through during you fast, and it is very likely that if you surrender your pride, God will fill you with humility and boldness over time.

Peace,