What has been your experience with fasting?

[K. A. W.]

Hey Worthy folks,

I'm going to be doing a blog series on fasting, and I was interested to see what experiences you have had in this area.

 

[Neighbor]

Nothing blog worthy, my longest fast was for twelve days. I got hungry, ate, end of tale.

Kinda been hungry ever since, some three decades now.

[Neighbor]

Double posted  sorry. My mind was distracted thinking of food.

[bryan]

A definition helps first.  I'll define fasting is doing without food or drinks having calories (i.e. juice) for some number of days. 

There have been studies showing different health benefits of fasting for one day, at least four days, and more than three weeks.  

Doing without food for the first three days can be the most difficult.  After that, you may not be hungry any more because your  body has switched from burning glucose (sugar/carbs) to stored fat.  This was the case for me.

Depending on your overall health and metabolism, it can be important to keep up your electrolytes during a fast.  Being low in salt, potassium, and / or magnesium during a fast can make one feel ill.

[john1]

I rather help someone than fast, I used to fast, but didn't help people much, now I think I got it better.

Isaiah chapter 58 verse 6

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

[K. A. W.]

I was asking about the spiritual benefits people have gained from fasting. 

[Neighbor]

On 12/27/2017 at 5:42 PM, K. A. W. said:

I was asking about the spiritual benefits people have gained from fasting. 

There is no spiritual benefit from fasting.

There is spiritual benefit from praying, and reading the word of God, and thinking on it which becomes food of another sort, a spiritual food that can replace common food for the belly for a time of greater concentration.

But just lacking food intake by itself? That is just starving, doesn't do much, except eventually shut the body down.

[Jayne]

Merely abstaining from food is not a fast.  And all abstaining from food does for one is to make one weak, irritable, and hungry.

A fast is a time of seeking God and his strength and his sovereignty.  The time of normal meal-eating is replaced with prayer, more Bible reading than usual, and a drawing near to God.  Great things happen - spiritually and otherwise - when fasting takes place for those reasons and in that manner.

When Queen Esther had to violate the law, defy her husband, and put her life literally in jeopardy to save the Jewish nation, she fasted for three days and through her cousin, Mordecai, asked the nation to fast for three days.  After those three days, God moved the heart of the king and moved circumstances to protect his people.  I'd call that a great spiritual benefit.

Jesus fasted for 40 days [I don't suggest that anyone do that!] because he understand that he, in the flesh, was about to be at spiritual warfare with the devil. Jesus prevailed.

In Matthew, when the disciples could not banish a particularly strong demon from someone, Jesus said, "This kind can only be done with prayer and fasting."

One doesn't have to fast the entire day.  A partial day fast can be done for those on medications or with illnesses that require them to eat.

The point is that the time of denial of food must be replaced with intense prayer, Bible study, worship, and a private, private time with God seeking his face.

Otherwise - it's just "not eating".  And that only makes us focus on food all the more.

[bryan]

4 hours ago, Neighbor said:

There is no spiritual benefit from fasting.

There is spiritual benefit from praying, and reading the word of God, and thinking on it which becomes food of another sort, a spiritual food that can replace common food for the belly for a time of greater concentration.

But just lacking food intake by itself? That is just starving, doesn't do much, except eventually shut the body down.

There can be spiritual benefits from fasting as it's been known for hundreds of years to be a tool to improve mental clarity.  The Greek philosophers wrote about this.  Some people fast to focus on prayer for a while. 

One needs to understand how fasting affects your body to take advantage of this.  Not eating for a while doesn't immediately starve you or start shutting your body down at all.  For the few couple days of not eating, your body uses all its stored glucose in your blood stream and liver.  After that's used up, it switches from glucose to fat for energy.  At this point, your body actually increases your metabolism a bit.  Unless you're an ultra athlete with next to zero body fat, many can continue in that mode for days or weeks using fat as a primary energy source.

So, are there spiritual benefits from fasting?  Only if you use the fast to concentrate better on prayer.  It could be used only for work or study.

 

 

 

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, bryan said:

There can be spiritual benefits from fasting as it's been known for hundreds of years to be a tool to improve mental clarity.  The Greek philosophers wrote about this.  Some people fast to focus on prayer for a while. 

One needs to understand how fasting affects your body to take advantage of this.  Not eating for a while doesn't immediately starve you or start shutting your body down at all.  For the few couple days of not eating, your body uses all its stored glucose in your blood stream and liver.  After that's used up, it switches from glucose to fat for energy.  At this point, your body actually increases your metabolism a bit.  Unless you're an ultra athlete with next to zero body fat, many can continue in that mode for days or weeks using fat as a primary energy source.

So, are there spiritual benefits from fasting?  Only if you use the fast to concentrate better on prayer.  It could be used only for work or study.

 

 

 

Hi,

Eventually is an adverb.     . One may concentrate as much as they want, but eventually  not eating , in of itself, results in starvation. There needs to be a purpose and a point to it. it is for a time of engaging in something  else, not a rite of celebrating  of it alone.

Now, by agreement for a time of study and prayer, even abstinence is a thing  that may be used as a tool for enhancing study of the word of God. Also like abstinence, fasting from food in of itself is rather a useless exercise of denial. There needs to be a higher purpose  than just a fasting.

As I said, I fasted for twelve days, and have always had a sense of being hungry ever since. Fasting  is kin to starvation if done with  no purpose much higher than the passage of time in fasting itself. Like demons that return to an empty house, denial of food results in  a hunger for many more foods once the fast is over. The desire to eat becomes something far in excess of what it ever  was before  the fasting began.

Even this conversation makes me want to eat, and I just finished a late breakfast, having coffee now. have some fine see-food planned for later in mid afternoon and then  a simple soup for tonight. See? Food, food, food.