Fasting Advice

[theoriginalavatar]

Good Morning,

I am new to the forums, but I have a question. What helps you fast? I have always struggled with this. Perhaps I have a great lack of will power, but it has always been difficult for me to embrace the blessings that I know can come from fasting. Any stories, advice, and help that you care to impart will be greatly appreciated!

[Wingnut]

Have a big lunch mid-afternoon the day before you fast, and it makes the time seem not so long.

[theoriginalavatar]

This isn't exactly related to my original question, but at what age do you think (or have you found) it appropriate to begin to encourage children to participate in the fast?

[Wingnut]

I only have one child, and she's only 20 months, but I think that by the time kids are baptized, they can start fasting one meal. By the time they hit the youth program, they should be able to participate fully in a fast.

[theoriginalavatar]

I only have one child, and she's only 20 months, but I think that by the time kids are baptized, they can start fasting one meal. By the time they hit the youth program, they should be able to participate fully in a fast.

Thank you. That seems very logical. I hadn't considered going about it in stages.

[Hemidakota]

Good Morning,

I am new to the forums, but I have a question. What helps you fast? I have always struggled with this. Perhaps I have a great lack of will power, but it has always been difficult for me to embrace the blessings that I know can come from fasting. Any stories, advice, and help that you care to impart will be greatly appreciated!

Each Sunday, fast the previous evening and skip Sunday's breakfast. Over time add Sunday lunch and last dinner. You need to get your body use to this.

But fasting in avoiding a meal is not the main focus here. The focus is on a selected subject, a feeling, or question in seeking an answer.

What did the Prophet Isaiah state concerning those who are considered hypocrites when fasting and what is the purpose of fasting? Chapter 58 it reads -

Chapter 58

God rejects the hypocritical fasts of the Jews: recommends works of mercy, and sincere godliness.

1 Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.

3 Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

4 Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.

5 Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.

7 Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.

10 When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness

[talisyn]

I have long considered fasting to be a wonderful blessing, an opportunity to show obedience to God and willingness to sacrifice. Maybe fast next time for help in perspective? Your body will fight you of course, but that's part of why we're here

I know people who fast 24 hours. I know some who can fast for only 1 meal. It isn't an endurance contest, it's what you have in your heart that sanctifies the fasting.

[Moksha]

The above passages from Isaiah asks the question of whether the fast is a mechanical act for showing devotion and then supplies an appropriate answer: That "if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday." Then, "the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not."

Seems like a good reason to fast. On top of that, fasting has been used for obtaining spiritual clarity, as an aid to communion with the Divine and as a symbolic gesture of support for letting go of barriers that get in the way of wanting closeness with God.

[LDSVALLEY]

for Question one: Fast for a purpose. To just go without eating because you should is not a purpose. Think about it a day or two in advance, pray before you fast , pray during your fast, then pray at the end when you break your fast. I often can't fast because of medication I have to take with food, I can manage sometimes but the medication is hard on an empty stomach. But when i do I find eating a big meal just before starting is actually harder on me, I find it works better for me to have a big meal before my last one then have a small or medium meal that way my stomach is not swollen with food and feeling the hunger of nothing in it more.

Question two about what age: We talk about when we are fasting with our kids since the oldest was 10 now 14. Each of them (currently 10,11,14) have fasted at least 3 times. We allow them to decide, sometimes they end up doing just a half fast other times they do a full fast. Sometimes they don't do any. The key is they have been raised to understand the spiritual blessings of fasting and have been able to experience it for themselves.

[Taldarin]

My little brother started fasting with us when he was 6, just because he wanted to. My parents never made us fast, they said it was our choice, but we all ended up choosing it anyway. Well, most of the time.

For me, to help me get through the fast, I have to keep remembering why I'm fasting, and sometimes I repeat "the spirit governs the body..." haha