Dear COA family,

For the last three weeks I have been dwelling on the topic of fasting, and this will be my fourth and final reflection on this little known Christian discipline.

Fasting has always been thought of as deprivation. We deprive ourselves of food, drink, or pleasurable hobbies or activities in order to make room for God’s word and work in our lives. It is a practice of self-denial which is so needed as a corrective to our self-centred and self-seeking culture today.

Yet this is only half of the story.

Fasting is also what we do for others. The prophet Isaiah quoted God as saying, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

In other words, the practice of fasting that pleases God includes performing good deeds like helping brothers and sisters in need and contributing generously to the needs of the poor. This will bring about the favour and blessings of God upon us:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (v8-9).

Some of you might ask, how is fasting related to doing good deeds?

I believe that in fasting, we are not only sensitised to God’s voice, our hearts also become open to the needs of others. It is only when we are in need that we begin to understand and empathise with the struggles of others. And when we are too full of ourselves, we become oblivious to people’s pains.

It is no wonder then that our Lord Jesus also took the route of suffering and pain in order to fully understand what we go through. In a certain sense, by being fully human, it is a form of self-deprivation for him from his divine power and qualities. Paul writes that Jesus “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7).

Let us, then, persevere through this season of fasting, to be similarly open and sensitive to the needs of others and to be eager to abound in good works for the glory of God!

Revd Ian