What I Learned From A 3-Day Fast

“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.”

Ezra 8:21

Our church’s spring meeting prompted a return to fasting. When I reviewed my calendar, I realized it had been too long since I’d taken a multiple day fast. While it took a little planning and stress, I sure am grateful to get back to it.

Praying is a regular part of the day. Not introspection, praying. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) Paul said. The world mistakes prayer for an ‘inner dialogue.’ That’s because when a lost man prays, nobody answers. For a Christian, talking with the Lord Jesus is not an exercise in religious futility– it is the privilege of my lifetime: to talk with the God who loves me today. He listens yes, but greater still, He answers. “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!” (Ps. 139:17)

Lately, however, as God’s plans for me intersect His plans for others, and as the devil begins to complicate my livelihood, I found I needed to seriously seek clarity from God. Fasting is the main way to do just that.

Fasting does not replace daily Bible reading nor prayer. You won’t get more from God by doing this without the others. Daily Bible reading and prayer is the bread and butter of fellowship with God. Fasting is the salt and pepper.

Fasting is not a celebrated holiday. Lent and Ramadan are the kissing cousins of heresy and are entirely unscriptural. Neither have anything to do with Christianity or holiness.

Lent fasting is confusing at best. A faithful Catholic is supposed to refrain from eating meat for 40 days. But only on Friday. So, that makes it a one day-a-week fast. Except for fish: you can eat fish. Wait, isn’t fish a meat? Lent is as much fasting as fish is vegetable.

The Muslims have a hilarious habit during Ramadan. They claim to fast for 40 days. Forty whole days! Only Moses and Jesus had such piety and discipline! They hold this as their holiness in the face of fat, undisciplined infidels like us. The catch is, although they fast through the day, they gorge unrestrained after dark every night! When I first saw this in action in 2006 from my Egyptian coworker, I got stuck between a laugh and a lump in my throat. Muslim ‘fasting’ would be sincerely funny, if it weren’t so deceptively damning.

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? “

Isaiah 58:6

What is Fasting?

Fasting is not eating food for a period of time. I realize some people’s health, or medical requirements preclude them from being able to do this for days at a time. But even in those cases, a few extra hours before going to bed or after waking up in the morning, or skipping a regular meal can mean as much as a healthy person’s day- or week-long abstinence.

Fasting is often done in urgency; when there is a deadline of God answering or declining a prayer request. David fasted for 3 days while Bathsheba’s first son struggled for life. God had already told David he would die, but that didn’t stop David from lying flat on his face for 3 days begging God for mercy. (See 1 Samuel 12:16-23)

Fasting may exclude other normal needs, such as sleep. (See Daniel 6:18)

Fasting in the Bible may also exclude water for a time. (See Jonah 3:7) The Ninevites received mercy from God for their extreme repentance at the preaching of Jonah.

Fasting is not a one-time fix-all. Nineveh later fell back into sin, and God overthrew them as He warned the first time. See the dismal ending of the “burden of Nineveh” in Nahum 3:18-19.

My fasting was a food fast. I drank water (a lot of it) and I slept a normal night’s sleep. The term was 3 days (and nights).

What I Learned

I’m not exactly what you’d call health-conscious. There is a whole world of dieticians and trainers online and at the local gym who could give better advice on fasting for health reasons. I fasted strictly for spiritual reasons. Fasting has a way of forcing the body into subjection to the Spirit, so the health effects are undeniably present.

Fasting helps me to remember just how un-spiritual I am. The voluntary suffering I brought on myself did not make me feel like a saint. Wretch might be a better word. Fasting is not a quick pick me up for spiritual health. It was almost the opposite.

I learned four quirks about my personal fasting experience.

F- First

Choose

The first quirk is that fasting will not just happen. I had to decide on it. This came through a couple sermons and situations that I knew I could not ignore until I had given myself to fasting.

Prepare

Fasting in the Bible is between you and the Lord. But if you are married or have a family, you will have to plan ahead. Date nights with your wife don’t go well when you’re fasting. Also, family meals, quick trips to a drive-thru with the kids, and that bit of candy you hid in the console of the truck will need addressed. I found that I did not need to tell the world, but I DID need to let my family know what was going on.

The battle at this first stage was to overcome just how inconvenient it was going to be. But that is kind of the point. You don’t have to be a proud jerk about it (if you do, its worthless anyway, see Matthew 6:18). But you need to stop putting it off for a ‘better time’ and just make the decision.

A- Appetite

Secondly, I learned how unmanageable my appetite had become. Everyday foods contain more than nourishment; many of them have stimulants and habit-forming ingredients. So as I began, I had to address how my appetite had dictated my day.

“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

1 Corinthians 6:12

I tapered off my #1 addiction: caffeine. Mostly in coffee, but occasionally snuck in through tea or a soda. On the day of my fast, I drank one cup of coffee in the morning, black. (Is there really any other way?) I sipped on it as long as I could make it last. I guess that was my way of tapering off…

But in retrospect, sugar, caffeine, vitamins, energy drinks, and supplements have a significant affect on food intake. My recommendation? Taper those off a couple days ahead of time. Your body will already be missing the carbs and filler so any additives should be cut to lessen those surprises.

You will not die. I knew I was a baby before, but its amazing what messages your stomach will send to your brain. YOU’RE KILLING ME! I’M DYING! And such like. It really felt like these thoughts came from my gut. Not my heart, nor my brain– the bowels. Maybe I’m crazy, but it was like my belly was demanding that I serve it. (See Philippians 3:19)

So I drowned it in water. The secret ingredient that worked best for me was either drinking frigid ice-water or sipping a mug of piping hot water. The temperature acted as an analgesic for my hunger pangs, and gave my gut something to keep it quiet.

S- Suffer

The Point

The suffering, though mild, is the point of the fast. Bringing a body into subjection takes work. Managing your own body is a scrimmage fought with yourself. Even when you win, you lose.

The Peak

I found it peaked on the second day. My brain was sluggish, and I didn’t want to talk to people. Writing was out of the question. Fasting weaned me off supplements that had been masking pain. Many small hurts resurfaced and companied me constantly.

I found that I wasn’t distracted by other things– because just focusing on one task was a chore. Praying is usually interrupted by other thoughts that must be quelled; during my fast it was work to do one thing at a time. I certainly felt slower, but it also felt deliberate. I did not feel like I was saying much, but I meant what I said.

Jesus fasted for 40 days before facing the devil. The Scripture says He was “afterward an hungered.” That’s a man if I ever saw one. Over a month just to get Him hungry.

T- Temptation

The last lesson is really the first reason every Christian needs to do this. Jesus first action after being baptized by John is to disappear into the wilderness to fast and to face the Devil. He demonstrated what every man needs to get ahold of: that overcoming temptation has less to do with you ‘having a good day’ or ‘being in the right frame of mind’ and more to do with utter reliance on the Spirit of God.

On the last day of the fast, I got what I consider a false high. I felt sharper. The pains were there, but I had come to terms with them- they would not run my life. The hunger was there, but leashed. The third day was temperance day. I had it under control. Going about my business left no time to trifle with the flesh.

Not over yet

But the strongest temptations came the days AFTER the fast. The morning of the fourth day, when I resumed a normal diet, I realized that I was looking for some sort of permanence of victory over my flesh. How wrong I was!

My fleshly mind warred against those 3 days. Many intrusive and hateful thoughts bombarded me. They said it was disingenuous. They said it was worthless. When I ate my first normal supper and got full, my flesh guilted me all the next day.

I wasn’t fighting during the fast. I was preparing to fight. That’s the lesson I learned. It served me well, too, because I needed to rely heavily on the Lord and on the Bible the following days to survive a peculiar onslaught.

Results

All in all, I will certainly do it again. My hero is Paul, who ministered “in fastings often.” (2 Cor. 11:27)

Spiritually it defogged my mind, and made daily devotions deliberate and purposeful. Physically, I lost weight, and the hurts that I’d been masking dulled on their own. The volume of my appetite has diminished, and food tastes better.

I hope you will take heart and take on a fast of your own. What results could you see?

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