FEATURE

Following the early church practice (and the Old Testament church), the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has called for a day of fasting.

The 90th General Assembly determines to call for a day of prayer and fasting on Saturday, August 17, 2024, that the whole church may pray as one people, and call upon the Lord with one voice, that we might lament our distress and unworthiness before the Lord, confess our sin, and commit ourselves anew to the work of the Great Commission in the faithful service of the Lord our God; that we would humble ourselves, seeking the Lord’s guidance and provision for the spreading of His kingdom to the ends of the earth; that we humbly implore God to raise up missionary evangelists for our foreign fields.

This is one biblical practice that I find most Christians are unaware of. There are some faith traditions that have set times of fasting where they get to choose something to give up. Often, it’s something that serves as a kind of self-improvement (giving up sugar, soda, or social media). Or another popular thing these days is a kind of diet-fasting. This is where you restrict eating to only a few hours a day to curb overall intake. That’s not really fasting, at least not the sort of fasting that the Bible speaks of. Biblical fasting isn’t something for health or self-improvement.

Fasting in the Bible is an occasional abstinence from food. The reason for it was often to bring the body into subjection to the Spirit and was accompanied with prayer. The subjection of the body to the Spirit could be a matter of repentance, for direction, for humility, or even for others. There are examples of all of these in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament.

For instance, when David had a child by Bathsheba, the child was born sick. We read in 2 Samuel 12:14 that David sought God on behalf of the child, and he fasted and wept. David was seeking God’s healing for the child. Perhaps God would heal the child. When the child died—a hard moment—David ended his fast. He would mourn for the child, but he was no longer seeking God on behalf of the child.

In the New Testament, fasting would continue to be practiced, particularly in moments when the church was appointing elders or seeking God’s guidance in a situation. We read in Acts 14:23, “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” This pattern of fasting for appointing elders is found in our own Directory for Public Worship: “when a pastor is to be ordained or installed (Form of Government, Chapter XXIII, Section 7), it is fitting that the people of God engage in times of solemn prayer and fasting” (DPW V.A.1) .

There are other reasons for fasting listed in the Directory, such as “When great and notable calamities come upon or threaten the church, community, or nation, when judgment is deserved because of sin, when the people seek some special blessing from the Lord . . .” which brings us to the General Assembly’s call. The work of foreign missions is important—essential even—as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission given by our Savior.

Fasting continues, then, which makes Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:16–18 important. He has taught us that we shouldn’t give and pray the way that hypocrites do (6:1–15). Instead, our giving and praying should be marked by a kind of selfless humility that doesn’t seek attention. The same is true for fasting as well. Jesus says, “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

The hypocrites that Jesus has in mind, as usual, are the Pharisees. They had a way of fasting that let everyone know that they were doing it. They wanted to be noticed because then people would consider them holy. Jesus tells a parable of one such Pharisee in Luke 18:9–14. This Pharisee prays boisterously, hands raised to the sky in public, in order to garner attention. In his prayer he declares, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” The tax collector he refers to was also praying, far off. But notice, here, that he cites fasting twice a week. They usually fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, and everyone had to know about it.

This Pharisee was misunderstanding fasting (and everything, really). He thought it was about manipulating God into giving him something as well as looking good in front of others. That’s not what fasting is at all. In fact, fasting is self-denial, so how could one ever think that it should puff us up? Jesus tells us how to fast: “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Fasting should not be something done to draw attention to ourselves. If it’s supposed to be a matter of prayer and piety, then it’s something that we ought to do without regard to the praise and attention that people will give us (especially so in our day of excess). However, note what Jesus says right at the start of this passage, “And when you fast . . . .” Fasting, like prayer and giving, is something Jesus expects his followers will do. Why? Because fasting, at its core, is self-denial and is meant to lead to love for others (Isa. 58:6–10). Let us, then, seek our God together, that he would bless the Orthodox Presbyterian Church with evangelists for our mission fields, for “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37–38).