November: Fasting

Fasting is a spiritual discipline that has been a part of Christianity since its inception. In fact, Jesus’ earthly ministry began with Him fasting for forty days in the wilderness. Throughout the past two thousand years of church history, fasting has remained a staple practice among believers. However, it is only quite recently—particularly within the Western Protestant church—that fasting has fallen out of favor.

The initial reason for this shift was that fasting had become so heavily legalized within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions that, in the Reformers’ push to remove legalism, many church-facilitated or commanded fasts were stripped away. While it is commendable that the Reformers were eager to free the church from legalism and the idea of salvation through works, it seems that the baby may have been thrown out with the bathwater.

Today, in the modern Western church, only a minority of believers regularly practice fasting. We have gone from a time, just five hundred years ago, when nearly everyone—including the youth—participated in multiple fasts throughout the year, to a time when many young people have never fasted at all.

Therefore, I would like to challenge each of our groups to plan and participate in a fast of some kind this month. This will look different from group to group, but I encourage you to choose something meaningful and commit to it for a challenging yet realistic amount of time.

Three examples:

Your group could do a full 24-hour strict food fast. Choose a day to do it together and, if possible, meet up that day for prayer or fellowship.

You could try a sugar and caffeine fast for a few days—perhaps from Friday to Sunday, or even for a full week.

Or you could do a technology fast, where no one uses screens for a weekend, or after 4 p.m. each day for a week or longer.

However your group decides to do it is up to you. The most important thing is that we involve our students in the process, challenge them to take ownership of it, and help them learn to implement fasting as a spiritual discipline in their walk with Christ.