LENT RHYTHM

FASTING

Fasting is specifically going without food or nutrients for a set period of time. We will be fasting one day (24 hour window), specifically Tuesdays if it fits with your work/family routine. The easiest for those trying it for the first time is to fast from breakfast to breakfast, as you’re asleep for the latter portion of your fasting period. 

Numerous people in the Scriptures fasted, with some fasting for forty days total. We can read about Elijah, Moses, or even Jesus himself. 

While we aren’t calling the whole church to a forty day fast, we do want to clarify that this is a spiritual fast. While there are significant health benefits to fasting, our primary goal is to seek spiritual focus and invite God to speak and reveal things in us through our fasting. 

That’s one lesson you might learn straight away - Richard Foster (paraphrasing here) says that fasting often will make you feel irritable, or impatient, or angry - but what it actually is doing is not causing those feelings, but rather revealing what is true already about you. 

I remember the first time I fasted for more than one day, and boy was I impatient. About three days in, during prayer and reading, I came across Foster’s wisdom. I realized quickly that fasting wasn’t making me impatient, it was revealing how impatient I am. 

Be open to what God reveals in you during this time. Remember that He disciplines us for our good. Whatever fasting stirs up in you, bring it to your Lord in prayer. Ask Him to continue to be gracious to you (He will be) and to lead you as you wrestle with whatever it is fasting is exposing. 

Additionally, fasting is one of the most significant disciplines to get your flesh under control. John Mark Comer says it this way: “What Scripture reading is to our fight with the devil (a way to fill our minds with truth to combat his lies), fasting is to our fight with the flesh (a way to starve our flesh and weaken its hold over us).” If you can cultivate self-control over the essential, basic need of hunger, it will strengthen your self-control over other areas of your life. 

Understandably, many of you are parents, have careers where lunches and dinners are part of your job - invite God’s leading in your pursuit of fasting. I try to do my best not to announce to all that I am fasting, but simply tell people at meal times that I’m not hungry, or that I’ve already eaten. What I don’t tell them is that what I have been ‘eating’ is not physical food, but spiritual nourishment. 

Fasting, going without food, opens us up to feasting on what the Lord provides. Jesus himself said to the tempter in his 40-day fast, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:4, cf Deuteronomy 8:3).

ABSTAINING

Abstaining is what many people will do during Lent, even though they’ll call it fasting. Abstaining is about removing something from your daily/weekly routine that is not sinful per say. If you are willfully engaging in sin, you need to repent, not just abstain! 

This is how I first heard about Lent while I was in college. A bunch of the guys on my dorm were going to abstain from something during Lent. My first response was “I’m not catholic.” But I learned quickly that it was not simply a catholic observance, but something Christians had observed for hundreds of years (actually, since even before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD). Most of the guys abstained from television or video games. Some chose a dietary restriction like soda or dessert. It was especially entertaining when a friend chose to cut out television, then realized March Madness was during Lent, to which he would stand outside of our room when we were watching the games to get score updates for his favorite team! 

Just as food isn’t bad, abstaining isn’t about removing bad things, but about focusing during this Lenten period to create more space for something better God has for you. 

It could be taking a break from social media, the news, television, movies or video games. It could be dietary; like abstaining from sweets, soda, meat, caffeine or alcohol. There are some who even abstain from shopping on amazon, using credit cards, or staying up late. 

Whatever it is, realize that you are abstaining for six weeks - not forever - and that we’re to bring it before the Lord throughout Lent. If you stop watching movies, maybe you realize how much you relied on them for relaxation and there’s a better avenue. If you cut out dessert, perhaps God will show how you had gone to it for a reward, but He has a greater reward every day He’d like to offer you. 

This is one that is best to do with others - whether it be your Life Group, Micro Group, or just some friends or family. The accountability is essential, and the illumination you’ll have during this time you can share with close friends/family to continue to encourage you.

SABBATH

Last but not least, sabbath. This Lent we are inviting you to observe a 24-hour window of rest. Not simply a ‘day off’ - as that is not what God had in mind for sabbath. 

There are two times the command to sabbath appears. Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15. Many have pointed out there are two different reasons for sabbathing between Exodus and Deuteronomy. 

Exodus 20:8-11 says 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 

The reason we are to sabbath is because God sabbathed. From the Exodus command, we seek to ‘make it holy.’ Or more simply “pray.” What are the ways you can make your sabbath day holy? Perhaps it’s going to church. Only listening to worship. Taking time to pray with your family, for your co-workers. Going on a silent walk in nature and listening to the Lord. 

The other comes in Deuteronomy 5, verses 12-15 12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 

If the Exodus command is to ‘make it holy’, the Deuteronomy command is to ‘make it fun’ or ‘play.’ It’s startling to see that God commands us to sabbath because we actually can now that we’re not slaves! 

What brings you delight that you don’t normally have time for during the week? Golf? Pickleball? A long nap? Reading a great book? Watching a movie with your family? Make the sabbath holy and also make it fun. 

One of the other helpful ‘tips’ I’ve heard about sabbathing is this: if you work with your hands, sabbath with your mind. If you work with your mind, sabbath with your hands. For me, my job is primarily my mind (sometimes I help setup or teardown on Sundays, but not often). So on my sabbath, I’ll spend some time working on the yard, tidying up the garage, even going through some of my clothes to get rid of, or organizing drawers in our kitchen. I also really love to golf on my sabbath day. 

Maybe you’re more of the blue-collar worker, so you want to sabbath with your mind. Setup a lunch with a friend, grab a great book and find a cozy chair to sit in. Maybe you watch an episode of your favorite series. 

I know many of you have already sought to incorporate sabbath into your weekly rhythm, but two Biblical reminders are essential. 

First, taking a sabbath is a command, not a suggestion. It is one of the ten. Which other of those ten do you see as ‘optional’? Murder? Worshiping other gods? Theft? With that line of reasoning, sabbath is the one vacation God commands us to observe (every week) that we refuse to! How many of you, right now, feel like you could use a vacation? Well, God commands one every week! 

Second, as an encouragement - Jesus said really clearly that observing sabbath is not to become overly legalistic. All the additional rules the 1st century religious leaders had added on were infuriating to him (and should be to us). They had sought to avoid ‘work’ so legalistically they wouldn’t let people be healed, or hungry people glean fields (among with many other things - if you want some good comedic reading about extreme sabbath laws, google “crazy jewish sabbath rules” - one of my favorites is not tearing toilet paper because it is ‘destroying’ - i.e. tearing). All that to say, Jesus has sterns words for His audience in Mark 2 - “The Sabbath was made for man, not many for the Sabbath.” 

Obeying the command to sabbath is actually for your good. You stringently seeking to avoid all forms of work in order to ‘make the sabbath’ holy is the opposite line of reasoning. Be holy, have fun - pray and play - it is for your good to do so.