{"id":4500,"date":"2011-01-23T12:39:41","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T19:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=4500"},"modified":"2011-02-12T18:03:27","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T01:03:27","slug":"fasting-fast-facts-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/fasting-fast-facts-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"FASTING FAST FACTS. Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4507\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4507\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><!--subscribe2--><a href=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4507\" title=\"sage-angel-bread\" src=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread-350x262.jpg 350w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sage-angel-bread.jpg 675w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4507\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live on bread...alone?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here is a selection of <em>some<\/em> of the Fasting points I discussed, today, with the congregation at Bellegrove Church.<\/p>\n<p>This is NOT an exhaustive study on the topic. If you have experiences or thoughts to share, we could all benefit. Please share here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Definition: <\/strong><em><strong>\u201cfasting\u201d<\/strong><\/em><em><sup> <\/sup><\/em>verb.<em> abstaining from all or some kinds of food or drink, esp. as a religious observance.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Who are some people who fasted in the Bible?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong> <\/strong><\/em>There were thousands, but here are a few:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Hannah, Easter, David, Moses, Elijah\u2026 (personal fasts, for various reasons)<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 People of Nineveh (national repentance)<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jesus-spiritual discipline (training) preceding life&#8217;s work and mission (Matt 4:1-11) &#8212;Cool, huh?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fasting does what?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It questions our appetites (of every kind).<\/li>\n<li>It reminds us of Jesus great sacrifice (He give up everything. Leaving out a bit of food IS NOT a big deal, is it?)<\/li>\n<li>It helps us seek <strong>God\u2019s<\/strong> strength for obedient love and service.<\/li>\n<li>It involves our <strong>Motives<\/strong>, not technique <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+6&amp;version=NIV\">(Matt 6:16-18)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>(Some things) Fasting is needed for&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A potent reminder to turn to God.<\/li>\n<li>A subjection of a base need (food) to see our greater spiritual needs.<\/li>\n<li>A time of scrutiny of our personal sacrifice to the Lord, and his people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Fasting is Feasting on God. (Yes, you can read that again.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It helps us&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Focus on God, instead of our lack.<\/li>\n<li>Makes <strong><em>sacred space<\/em><\/strong> (for worship, prayer, praise, repentance to our gracious God.<\/li>\n<li>Experience (through self-denial) God\u2019s goodness and sufficiency. (A.k.a. \u201cWe live\u2026not by bread alone\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+4&amp;version=NIV\">Matt 4:1-11<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 23px; font-size: 14px;\"><strong> to be continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 23px; font-size: 14px;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span>(Next time: Some dangers of Fasting, and some benefits of Fasting, and some ideas for Fasting effectively.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fasting&#8230;Feasting on God (What, why where when who&#8230;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626],"tags":[141,4143,4140,649,4144,915,992,1064,4142,1244,27,1325,4141,4139,41,2261,4147,4146,4145,60,2840,4149,4148,3203,6539,84,85,91],"class_list":["post-4500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","tag-addiction","tag-appetites","tag-bread-alone","tag-christian","tag-craving","tag-david","tag-discipline","tag-easter","tag-elijah","tag-fasting","tag-food","tag-football","tag-hannah","tag-hunger","tag-jesus","tag-moses","tag-neurosis","tag-obsessions","tag-pornography","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-sacred-space","tag-sacrifice","tag-spiritual-practice","tag-spirituality","tag-temptation","tag-theology","tag-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4500"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4506,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions\/4506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}