In November we set aside time to be thankful. This requires reflection. Personally I’m not a fan of self-analysis to discover my feelings. In counseling, I understand the importance of doing so for therapeutic purposes. Yet I tend to be driven more by logic and just want my emotions to stay in their box where they belong. This doesn’t mean I am an unfeeling person, actually I feel things deeply. I don’t like my emotions to drive my motivations, therefore I keep a tight reign on them. However, as I turn toward a posture of thankfulness, it is my heart and motivations that most need addressed.
Years ago, in my homeschooling era, we dove into the history of the first Thanksgiving and the practices. I found it interesting that the pilgrims did not use the feast in their tradition of giving thanks to the LORD. They actually fasted as they reflected on the provision of God. When their native neighbors brought food to share, the pilgrims broke their fasting to join in community. After learning this we adopted a Thanksgiving Fast on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that particular week. Three days to reflect on God’s provision and then come together with thankful hearts. As I stated before, as I prepare for this ritual, it is the heart that I’m seeing matters most.
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD.
“Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping, and mourning;
And tear your heart and not merely your garments.”
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in mercy,
And relenting of catastrophe.
Joel 2: 12-13 NASB
Often times we see fasting as next level asking for what we want. I’m reminded of the scene from Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” where Lottie’s character figures she isn’t wishing on the star hard enough. Fasting becomes, to some people, that “please, please, please, please, please” with ever increasing urgency. Let me first say that if you are making a petition to God that is not in keeping with His will, you can plead until the day of judgement and it will not come to pass. I am not trying to discourage anyone from using fasting in their seeking petition, but fasting should do less to serve you and more to serve the Lord.
‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
And oppress all your workers.
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!
“Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?
“Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the ropes of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke?
Isaiah 58: 3-6
In both these passages the people were approaching fasting with the wrong kind of heart. Their posture was focusing on what they wanted and not about supplicating for God’s will. The times I’ve experienced the greatest blessings from fasting have been when I hold to the fact that it isn’t about me. My fasting reminds me that while I’m in this physical form there are desires that bind me to thoughts of self. Yet we are spiritual beings as well and as such there is a kingdom that requires our participation.
Fasting can focus our souls to say, “It isn’t about this physical realm, LORD. Whether this plane or the spiritual one, You are in control. Align my spirit with yours that I might see more clearly, understand more fully, and trust more deeply Your will unfolds on Earth as in Heaven.” I think of how in our marriage where every day we do the usual routine to go through life, but when we go away on a trip together the focus is on our relationship. You find joy as you experience new moments to strengthen your connection. Fasting can be a way of returning to “your first love,” (i.e. Rev. 2:4) when you confess that your flesh leads you away from God and towards desires, but your spirit longs to draw close to Him.
What we see from this practice of the pilgrims is that while we have come to celebrate our abundance, we forget that we can still be lacking. Lacking what? A posture of true thanksgiving that transcends our need for indulgence; that we are not complete without God. Remember Him as the source of all your provisions, not just your food, and share that all-encompassing thankfulness to the community with which you break bread.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may you spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24
Author Dellaca Ferraiz Reynolds 