Update: While I can’t say I love fasting now, I have found a few things that have helped me get the most out of my fasts. I jotted those down in another post you may find interesting.
Every January for the past six years I’ve taken part in a 21 day fast. The idea is to set the spiritual tone for the rest of the year.
I’ve heard it said before, this can be your best year ever if it’s your best year spiritually.
But I hate it. I hate fasting.
I don’t deny it’s a great way to start off the year. Praying, fasting and seeking after God. What I hate about it is what it reveals about myself.
It always show show incredibly undisciplined I am (maybe that’s why “discipline” is one of my words for the year). How I’m consumed with hunger for food. How I’ll cave to temptation and cheat on my fast. How I’ll compromise and change the fast to make it “easier.” How it becomes less spiritual and more diet.
What I hate about it is how a season/time of denying the flesh and focusing on God becomes just the opposite.
A time of focusing on the weakness of the flesh.
So this year I’ve made a conscious effort to use that to my advantage. Whenever I feel the weakness creeping up, I use it as a reminder that weakness is where Christ wants me (2 Corinthians 12:9). That as my body hungers for Pittsburgh steaks, it should really hunger for a deeper, more intimate relationship with Christ.
And that is where I find myself. Craving all sorts of food, but being reminded that my hunger should truly be for Christ.
For all you fellow fasting peeps out there, what are some ways you keep disciplined and focused on the right things when you fast?
13 replies on “Why I Hate Fasting”
My wife just completed a fasting period of 40 days and I really suffered too much looking at her doint it.
She got involved into Mission Ruah (by looking at their website and youtube videos) and I just cannot stand father Claudio Barbut, he seems too expert to me, not even close of what humble means (to my understanding).
The father Claudio seems to enjoy the attention brought to him by YouTube, his gatherings with lots of people (which usually happen in North, Central and South America ).
People love this guy, I did not find any hater around in the web (I consider my self good at internet seach). I even purchased a VPN to look for information from other parts of the world. But the story is consistent and seems fine: He was in the Vatican and he was closer to Ratzinger before being pope.
What I cannot understand is the knowing, the feeling, the granted idea that ALL people have truly deeply issues that have to be healed doing the FASTING !!!
Only by hearing at him, referring to the capital sins as Demons, makes a lot of conflict to me; I did a search on this too, and found out that capital sins got their demon name from a priest back in 1589 (Peter Binfeld; a witch hunter, confesions by doing torture etc…).
Well I really really need spritutal advice on this, I presume my wife is going to do it again next year. She tells me that I am worried ahead of time, but for me is a fact that she is going to do it every year.
I am God believer, but I really think that by doing Fasting and only praying is not way to go. Life is short and it requires my attention, devotion, energy and focus ON LIFE by ACTING and helping others, not only by being selfish on not eating and praying.
From now on, I am going to pray every single day, before the next Fasting period my wife is going to do, because she will simply will not listen to me.
Just to be clear of the situtation we are in: We have 4 kids together, a house to maintain and a pandemic situtation left us without the chance of having house keeping to help with the house chores; on top of that fasting wife !!!, Today is the 40th day but I this left me just worries and a wife that do not listen.
You have no idea of what your saying. You are too blessed to have a wife that will fast for 40 days. It is a great grace and will bring upon your family Gods blessings. The idea of fasting can be very confusing but that is what divine revelation(bible) teaches us. Jesus went into the dessert and fasted 40 days and nights. Father Claudio is a saint, be careful of who is guiding your thoughts . May the Holy Spirit guide you to the dessert and abandon yourself to the Divine Will!!
Today is fast Sunday for my church and as usual I completely forgot about it. So I googled “I hate fasting”. I found your website and was comforted to know that somebody else feels the same way I do. Thank you for sharing, Alex and, hopefully we can find a solution to this dilemma!
haha. welcome to the club. ;)
while i haven’t found a solution yet, i did jot down a few things that have made seasons of fasting more digestible for me. ;)
i’d encourage you to read that post. particularly, the idea of a reverse fast.
I have done some intense fasts over the years and the one thing I have learned is that when I am burdened to fast, it’s actually really simple. I don’t feel a desire for food and I devour my Word with a vengeance. But when I fast because I “should”, it’s always difficult and I don’t feel like I got all that much out of it.
Because of this, I don’t set regular fasts but instead, I pray that the Holy Spirit would lead me in when and what to fast. This has always worked better for me.
Hey Natasha!
I wish I felt burdened to fast instead of burdened to fast. ;)
In all honesty, I would prefer to fast only when I felt God’s leading. But I always fast at the start of the year because I attend a church that does. I want to be united with the church in this regard.
While I will be fasting again this year, I’m going to try something different in hopes of a different result.
Thanks for dropping by and congrats on your health successes!
All I can say is……good luck! :)
It honestly didn’t go over as well as I would have hoped, but that was more due to my lack of discipline than anything else. That’s why I mentioned to Dan how I’m going to have to brainstorm something different for next year. It’s no fun just going through the motions…
That’s ok. Well, it’s not ok but thanks to the generosity and mercifulness of God, it’s ok :)
I’m definitively not an expert on things like fasting but when you truly master something like fasting (i.e. you choose when to eat and when to be hungry), chances are you mastered quite a lot of other things along the way. In a way, you could say the true ability to fast is more the product or result of a journey.
Kinda like how a prophets ability to produce lightning has nothing to do with a prophet’s ability to produce lighting but more towards their relationship with God Himself. I don’t know, maybe that’s a bit over the top way of saying it but it’s hard to think of a modern example because the way our world works.
The fast is the fast. It’s only an indication of the true self. It’s like Luke 14:26 “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Once mastered, you can’t really believe you thought otherwise. In a way, you’ll start hating the things that prevented you to fast more so then the fast itself. My theory is that if you start hating that which prevents that which is good, you’ll find the way eventually….I hope. Hating things is risky and should only be used under the careful supervision of The Lord Himself.
As for how, you know what… Luke 14:28-35. Replace all the stuff there with the word “fast”.
P.S. Be gracious because once the fast is mastered (according to some stories I’ve read), it only get’s more challenging from here! (Unless of course there’s fear of growing to that next level of challenge….. then that’s a different problem than fasting itself!).
Here’s to the journey then! ;)
Fasting is also hard for me but know the power in doing it. Great points and passages.
Yeah, after this past fasting season, I think I really want to try something different next year. It’s gotten a little too routine for me. Gotta bust out of this fasting lull! ;)
Switching int up might be the best thing to do.