Fasting and Prayer
by Pastor Mark Adams, Hillside FMC, Evanston, IL

Jesus fasted. Do you? Jesus started his ministry — under the guidance of the Holy Spirit — by going into the desert for forty days. During this time, the Gospels (Matthew 4:2; Luke 4:2) tell us he fasted. Further, to quote the text, "he was hungry."

When Jesus fasted, he deprived himself of food. When he grew hungry, Satan tempted him and said, "You're the son of God, make a rock into bread and you won't be hungry any more." Jesus responded, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God." Though Christ could have done so, he intentionally chose to demonstrate that his God was not his stomach, but rather his Father in heaven. His complete and utter dependence upon God is demonstrated by his refusal to eat bread yet to cling to the word of God.

The famed psychologist Abraham Maslow taught a hierarchy of needs in which self-actualization can be achieved when we have all our lesser needs met. At the top of our needs scale is self-esteem, lower down is safety, but the foundation of the hierarchy of needs are food and shelter. These are the basics of life, without which we cannot ever have self-esteem and certainly not self-actualization.

Jesus turns this idea on its head. Jesus never teaches that we are to be self-actualized, but spirit-actualized. Our fullest sense of being comes only in dependence upon and union with God. If dependence upon food, upon having our physical needs met, impedes our dependence upon God, then we can never be fully actualized.

The apostle Paul later proclaimed this to some degree. He writes, "As I have often told you before and now say again with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven..." (Philippians 3:18-20). Jesus demonstrated that his god was not his stomach. He demonstrated that he was not of this world — that he would not be mastered by even the most basic of needs, except the need to claim citizenship in heaven.

Fasting does this for us. When we fast, we are tempted. We are tempted first to eat. There is nothing wrong with eating; it's a good thing. But when we learn how to overcome our appetites, so that they do not control us, we learn that our stomach is not our god.

Jesus fasted in preparation for his three-year whirlwind ministry that ended with the cross, the ultimate demonstration that his will was yielded to God and not to his own self-preservation. Of course, the cross was the essential gateway to the resurrection, which proves that reliance upon God, even to the point of death, is what leads to real and eternal life. To some degree, fasting is bearing a mini-cross. When you put aside your hunger — a very basic symbol of life-preservation — you are, in a very real and powerful way, putting aside self in obedience to God.

Set aside time to fast and pray. This element from the spiritual life of Jesus will be of great aid in your own spiritual development. As the gospel of Mark points out, while he was in the wilderness, with the wild beasts (scorpions, snakes, jackals) angels attended to him. When you fast in the midst of life's hardships and troubles, perhaps you will find angels attending to you as well.

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the August 2002 Newsletter of the Hillside Free Methodist Church. Mark Adams has been the senior pastor at Hillside in Evanston, Illinois (North Central Conference) for 9 years. Used by permission.