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I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me that fasting has brought them miracles. I don’t discount or discredit them, but I haven’t seen it myself. I’ve seen a blessing come from fast offerings (or at least that’s where I attribute it) on one occasion on my mission, but that’s about it. I can’t say I’ve ever felt more spiritually in tune from fasting. I never have really felt that I’ve gotten inspiration or power from God because I decided to fast. Now, this doesn’t really bother me, as I fast for other reasons. Maybe next time, I’ll try fasting only for those reasons and deliberately expect nothing in return.
I am very keen with the idea of fast offerings. The idea of donating to the poor and hungry what you would have spent to eat is really pretty neat and the kind of charity I am in favor of. And it’s not even a total sacrifice since there are health benefits to a monthly fast (I could consider this a blessing in itself). This is enough for me to keep doing it.
I wouldn’t be bothered if I never experienced the supposed power of fasting. I’m happy with the monthly fast. I don’t see fasting as anything magical, but it doesn’t need to be magical.
What have been your experiences?
My experiences have been very much like yours – and I am many years your senior (I have children your age). At one point in my life I fasted each Sunday and that went on over the period of a few years (give or take a Sunday here and there). I can’t say I have ever felt any real spiritual power, either, and quite frankly I don’t know why I did it. I also don’t discount that others have had enhanced spirituality or enhanced spiritual experiences because no two of us of all the billions who have lived or will live have the exact same experiences. It may even be a spiritual gift, and not every gift is given to every person. If you research the “law of the fast” you will find that this Jewish law that we have sort of adopted (and perhaps adapted) really is about the idea of giving to the poor. The Bible doesn’t really speak of special powers of fasting except perhaps in what may have been an off-handed remark attributed to Jesus (these go not out but by fasting and prayer). Like many other things I think that our modern Pharisees have made fasting out to be something it’s not and full of rules (24 hours, no food or drink, etc.)
Same here. Never felt a spiritual high from fasting, just a splitting headache. I found that the headache doesn’t happen if I don’t fast water. Incidentally, my best friend hasn’t ever fasted water in my memory. Ancient fasts didn’t include abstinence from water – and Jesus’ 40-day fast, if in line with Jewish custom of the time, would have included an evening meal each day. In other words, he would have fasted each day, as we do it now, for 40 straight days. I love the concept and principle of the fast, but I have never had a miraculous or extraordinary experience from fasting. I don’t fast for those sort of experiences, so I don’t care that I don’t experience them.
I had a real struggle on my mission. All of the guys I came out with had baptized a lot, and I hadn’t. It was a real struggle, and I was wondering what was wrong with me. Me and my companion decided to fast frequently. I think I fasted like 7 times in 15 days, but it was often just 1 meal because I wasn’t trying to kill myself, just let God know I was committed. I remember it was Dec 1 and we had a goal to baptize someone by Christmas. Around Dec 22 we had a zone conference, and I was pretty depressed. We had nobody close. I remember bearing a pathetic testimony about adversity and saying I was still going to keep trying. My mission pres got up just after zone conference ended and announced to the whole zone that me and my companion would have the blessings we were seeking. I was pretty surprised, and everybody came up wondering what was going on. I said, “I’m not trying to be faithless, but I’m having a hard time believing how this is going to happen.”
The day before, we had met a woman and given her a Book of Mormon. It was pretty unremarkable. She almost seemed to be falling asleep during the first discussion. I think we met her again a few days after Christmas. We asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon. To our surprise, she said yes. As you know, the 2nd discussion is where you’re supposed to ask them to be baptized. Once again, it seemed like she was falling asleep. We decided to challenge her anyway, and to my shock, she said “yes.” She was baptized about 3 weeks later.
I know some people feel these large spiritual manifestations. I never do. It isn’t until long after the event that I can see God’s hand in things (if ever.) I could tell some other similar “unremarkable miracles” that occurred after that. I don’t know why I don’t get these “bolt of lightning” manifestations that others do, and to be honest, I didn’t feel anything magical about that month either, but God did bless us in finding that woman. (Her name was Harriet.) I’ve decided there are many gifts as it says in the D&C. I didn’t get the gift to know I’m being blessed “in the moment.” I have to be content after the fact. Sometimes it can be really hard, because I often don’t see God’s hand in my life, so I can really relate to you Beefster. But I have decided that for me to have faith is just like that scene in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusadewhere he sticks out to walk across a canyon and can’t see the pathway is in front of him. That’s how God works in my life. I usually can’t see the path in front of me until I’m already on it. And it’s still scary! We can’t fast in our family (on medications requiring food and water), so my husband has started giving up other things for a fasting period instead, usually video games. I know that it is different on days that he is “fasting”, but I don’t know if it is just a natural cause/effect thing, or if he is a better person because he is fasting. Beefster wrote:
I found that the headache doesn’t happen if I don’t fast water. Incidentally, my best friend hasn’t ever fasted water in my memory.
I might just give that a try. I did find that it was better when a few months I would drink one big glass of water in the morning.
I live where it is hot and humid and if you go outside and do even mild work you sweat like crazy. Even in my most TBM days I realized if I spent most of Saturday outside working, it usually would take until mid Sunday for my hydration to get back to normal.
Thanks for the reminder/hint.
Fasting is an example of where the Church gets too dogmatic and loses sight of the ‘why’. In LDS practice, we usually are “fasting for” something. Or, we might be trying to prove to God that we are faithful. Or we might be just doing it out of wrote observance.
Fasting is a form of “mortification” or “mortification of the body” (christian theology) or more generally, religious self-denial. In a nutshell, the purpose of this type of ritual is to
strengthen the mind/soul/spirit over the body. Old Timer wrote:
Ancient fasts didn’t include abstinence from water – and Jesus’ 40-day fast, if in line with Jewish custom of the time, would have included an evening meal each day. In other words, he would have fasted each day, as we do it now, for 40 straight days.
So Jesus’ 40 day fast would have been more like a modern day Ramadan. Seems much more believable. I kind of thought the story of the 40 day fast was just another embellished miracle that probably didn’t really happen. Thanks for the clarification.
I’ve never felt spiritually edified from my fasts, but speaking of Ramadan, I did have an interesting conversation with one of my Muslim friends. He was telling me how excited he gets for Ramadan and how when it’s over he doesn’t want it to end because he feels so spiritually edified during that month. I think for them, it’s more than just about going without the food and water from sunrise to sunset. Every time he feels hungry or thirsty during that period, it reminds him to think of Allah and helps draw him closer spiritually. It really is a beautiful thing for him.
And if you want to be spiritually motivated or impressed, this friend is a Hafiz Muslim, which is a Muslim who has committed the entire Koran to memory. What a feat!
LookingHard wrote:
Beefster wrote:
I found that the headache doesn’t happen if I don’t fast water. Incidentally, my best friend hasn’t ever fasted water in my memory.
I might just give that a try. I did find that it was better when a few months I would drink one big glass of water in the morning.
I live where it is hot and humid and if you go outside and do even mild work you sweat like crazy. Even in my most TBM days I realized if I spent most of Saturday outside working, it usually would take until mid Sunday for my hydration to get back to normal.
Thanks for the reminder/hint.
FWIW on my mission we were explicitly instructed to continue to drink water while fasting. It was a mission practice that I took home with me.
I think fasting water was just one of those traditions that got needlessly tacked on at some point and just stuck. I wouldn’t be surprised if Joseph Smith never fasted water. Same goes for Jesus, especially in context of that 40-day fast. I feel awkward about doing it, if only for the traditionalists who watch your every move and silently judge you. Why that has any bearing on my behavior, I have no idea.
LookingHard wrote:
Same here. Never felt a spiritual high from fasting, just a splitting headache.
Yeah, that plus weakness and nausea.
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