Athletes exercise self-control in all things... So I do not run aimlessly... but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27;

If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:19, 20;

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:16-18;

There was also a prophet, Anna ... She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. Luke 2:36-37;

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. James 5:16;

He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.' John 20:23;
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# A young mother in a Brazilian favela had no food to give her children. So she did what she has done before, many times. She took some newspaper, rolled it into little 'cookies', soaked them in sweetened warm water, and gave them to the kids. They'll provide no nutrition, but something in their stomachs may stop them from crying from hunger in the night...

# Any who have visited churches in Korea are fascinated - and humbled - by those Christians' daily dawn prayer meetings, and their commitment to regular fasting. Thousands of Korean Christians have devoted up to forty days and nights to prayer and fasting, drinking only fresh water during that whole period! These people apparently believe that if you seek the Lord earnestly, you'll be prepared to pay a high price!

Here are two examples of food deprivation: involuntarily, it isn't good for you; as a voluntary discipline - excellent spiritual value!

Spiritual disciplines do for our spirits what regular exercise does for our bodies: they 'tone us up', help us stay in spiritual shape, strengthen us for the spiritual warfare which will inevitably come our way.

In this chapter we'll concentrate on one discipline - fasting - with a comments on three others: simplicity, confession, and service. The quotes and literature will help you explore many others. I am especially indebted to Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline for many of the ideas in this chapter.

1. Fasting. The recent growth of interest in Spirituality in all churches has focussed on this particular discipline. In a world where one quarter of the people die early through malnourishment, and another quarter through over-eating (!), we are again called to re-examine our lifestyles. As I type this, 20 million people in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia face starvation.

Fasting is abstaining from eating, or another legitimate activity, for religious purposes. Jews fasted on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31; 23:26-32; Numbers 29:7-11), and for other special reasons such as mourning (1 Samuel 31:13), after defeat in battle (1 Samuel 7:6), as a sign of repentance or remorse (2 Samuel 12:15-23, Joel 2:12-13), and to accompany intercession (Nehemiah 1,4).

Jesus fasted during his wilderness preparation for ministry (Matthew 4:1-2, Luke 4:1-2), but said only two things about fasting in his teaching in the gospels: it was an act of private devotion to God, and was appropriate once he left his followers (Matthew 6:16-18, 9:14-15; cf. Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35). The apostolic church apparently observed fasts during times of solemn commitment (Acts 13:2-3, 14:23).

Fasting is 'praying with the body', an affirmation of one's hunger for God and his will, an act of spiritual discipline, and an assertion of the goodness of God in creation, which one appreciates better in abstention; it

expresses penitence for the rejection and crucifixion of Christ by the human race; it is a following of Jesus on his way of fasting; it is one element in mortification; the acceptance of death of self in the death of Christ, and thereby an act of faith in the resurrection. (1)

Fasting has its dangers, when misused for selfish ends. The Bible notes such abuses as fasting as a means of getting things from God (manipulation or magic); it can be a substitute for genuine repentance and be formalistic; it can be masochistic -- an exaggerated self-denial; psychological evidence shows fasting can sometimes lead to self-induced visions which may not be helpful. (2)

So, in summary, there are no biblical laws that command regular fasting, but, as Martin Luther said, 'It was not Christ's intention to reject or despise fasting... it was his intention to restore proper fasting.' It is clear that Christ both upheld the discipline of fasting and anticipated that his followers would do it. (3)

Fasting, as Arthur Wallis says in his book God's Chosen Fast, is a way of teaching our bodies to be our servants rather than our masters!

(2) Simplicity, says Richard Foster in his best-selling Celebration of Discipline, is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. Because - and to the degree that - we lack a divine Centre our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. Conformity to a sick society is to be sick. However, asceticism and simplicity are not the same: asceticism renounces possessions; simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Then there is the discipline of sharing. Martin Luther said somewhere, 'If our goods are not available to the community they are stolen goods.'

(3) Confession. These last two disciplines - confession and service - are 'corporate disciplines'. We cannot survive spiritually without the help of our Christian friends.

The most compelling reason for praying with others is Jesus' promise that he's there with us (Matthew 18:19, 20). Jesus took his disciples with him occasionally when he was praying in solitary places (Luke 9:18,28). We know what Jesus prayed in Gethsemane probably because part of his prayer was overheard (Mark 14:33).

The apostolic Christians prayed together from the start. The Holy Spirit was poured out on a group at prayer (Acts 1:14). They continued to spend a lot of time in prayer together (Acts 2:42). Paul prayed constantly with his co-missioners (Colossians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11) and asked others to join him in disciplined prayer (Romans 15:30). James (5:16) tells us to 'confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed...'

The church is glorious, not because it's perfect, but because it's being redeemed. It is a fellowship of forgiven sinners, not (yet) perfect saints. So in the company of fellow-strugglers it is OK to be imperfect!

The followers of Christ have been given the authority to receive the confession of sin and to forgive in his name (see John 20:23). Whilst most of us would have problems with the stylized form of the 'Confessional', there are probably greater dangers in ignoring the biblical injunction to confess our sins to one another, praying for forgivenss and healing for each other (James 5:16).

Alphonsus Luguori writes, 'For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.'

It is important that when others are opening their griefs to us we discipline ourselves to be prayerfully quiet. Too often an embarrassed comment can destroy the sacredness of the moment.

Foster suggests that 'the ministry of retaining sins is simply the refusal to try to bring people into something for which they are not ready. Sometimes people are so anxious to get others into the kingdom that they will try to announce their forgiveness before they have sought it or even wanted it. Unfortunately, this malady is characteristic of a great deal of modern evangelism.'

Confession, says Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Spiritual Care, is the heart of spiritual care.

(4) Service. 'A Christian... , said Martin Luther, 'is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.'

The discipline of submission frees us from the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. We can be given the grace to love people unconditionally, and give up the right for them to return our love.

Jesus calls us to self-denial (which is not self-hatred or self-contempt). Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want.

The spiritual classics make lavish use of the language of self-denial. For example, Thomas a Kempis says 'To have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others, is great wisdom and perfection'. The teaching of the New Testament is revolutionary, challenging the contemporary customs of super-ordinate and sub-ordinate and calling upon everyone to 'count others better than yourselves' (Philippians 2:3).

We are to submit to God, to scripture, to our family, to our neighbours, to the believing community, to the broken and despised, and to the world. Followers of Jesus come to perceive that authority does not reside in positions or degrees or titles or tenure or any outward symbol. Rather we are given a spiritual authority, marked by both compassion and power.

Occasionally, however, revolutionary subordination to temporal authorities has its limits - when those authorities violate biblical injunctions and become destructive.

Jesus did not abolish ideas of leadership and authority, rather he radically redefined them. He did not merely reverse the 'pecking order' either. He abolished it. The symbol of his servanthood is a towel...

The 'service of hiddenness' - even for leaders - is a beautiful grace. Listen to Jeremy Taylor : 'Love to be concealed and little esteemed: be content to lack praise, never be troubled when you are overlooked or undervalued.'

Then there is the service of loving speech. We must 'speak evil of no one' (Titus 3:2) nor allow others to speak disparagingly of another. There is also the service of common courtesy, of hospitality, of listening, of bearing one another's burdens and sorrows, and sharing the word of life .....

Perhaps, suggests Richard Foster, you would like to begin this beautiful journey with a prayer at the beginning of each day: 'Lord Jesus, I would so appreciate it if You would bring me someone today whom I can serve.'

Prayer cannot be divorced from daily living. Baron Friedrich von Hugel's first suggestion to Evelyn Underhill when he was invited to be her spiritual director: visit the poor in inner-city London two days a week. After all the Spirit, says an ancient Latin hymn, is pater pauperum, 'father of the poor'. Bonhoeffer wrote: 'It is not some religious act which makes a Christian what he or she is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world.' (4)

Reality is more internal than external. Reality is more the inner journey than being 'successful outwardly. These and other classical disciplines of the spiritual life help us to get in touch with our frailty and finitness and the necessity for dependence. We will explore new territories in these exercises. At times we may be discouraged. But plenty of others have gone this way before us and we can learn from them. Be daring, take a few risks, go out on a limb, find your security in God rather than in your needing to conform to a weak kind of Christianity practised by so many these days. Trust your spiritual community, however. Be flexible. Be true to your spiritual tradition. And trust in the Lord, who is always with you, and will respond to your desires to please him and grow into him.
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Guidelines for Fasting: A partial fast is when we restrict our diet without totally abstaining from food; a normal fast is abstention from all food but not from fluids; an absolute fast is total abstinence from food and fluids.

Enter into fasting with expectant faith. Do not wait for an emergency to drive you to fasting. Do not set too long a period of fasting to begin with. Set specific objectives in your fasting and make a written list of these. Avoid religious ostentation and boastfulness.

Before the fast: abstain from drinking coffee or tea. Take a light but wholesome meal. During the fast: drink plenty of fresh water; do not allow unpleasant physical symptoms to deter you eg. slight dizziness, nausea. These usually subside after a while. After the fast: break your fast gradually beginning with meals that are light and easy to digest. Done correctly, regular fasting is actually good for one's health. However, if you are on any medication or if you have a medical condition or are pregnant, seek your doctor's advice before attempting any fast.

Fasting enables one to have increased effectiveness in intercessory prayer, secured guidance in making decisions, increased concentration, deliverance for those in bondage, and physical well-being.

Fasting helps bring the desires of the body under control. We discipline our bodies to enhance our effectiveness for the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:27).

'Feasting or Fasting?' World Vision of Singapore pamphlet (adapted).

One of the most astonishing exercises in Sadhana is a meditation on my own corpse (Exercise 29). This comes from a buddhist series of reality meditations, and what is amazing is that, however horrifying it sounds in prospect, it gives a deep sense of inner peace.

There are nine stages: first you see your corpse cold and rigid, then turning blue, then cracks appear in the flesh, then decomposition sets in in some parts, then the whole body is in full decomposition, then the skeleton appears with some flesh adhering in some places, then there is the skeleton with no flesh left, then there is a heap of bones, lastly there is a heap of dust.

Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fountain Paperbacks, 1987, p.110.

One of the greatest pitfalls for people who go in for spirituality, is to waft around in a spiritual zone seeking peace, fulfilment and inner harmony, and leaving the world to rot. Centres of spirituality flourish, master's degrees are taken in prayer, meditation becomes a boom industry, and meanwhile the hungry go on being hungry, the naked go on being naked, the sick and imprisoned have no one to visit them, and the sinful structures of the world continue unchallenged.

For someone in the third world, a spirituality movement can be bad news. The theologians of liberation draw attention to the implicitly conservative nature of most of these movements when they are found in Latin America - like the Cursillo retreat movement, and the Charismatic renewal: by turning attention away from the bitter reality of the way people live, they leave everything the way it was.

Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1990, p.201.

The spiritual discipline of simplicity means singleness of purpose toward God. Kierkegaard said, 'Purity of heart is to will one thing,' and by that he meant it is to will the good, which is God. Simplicity is not first a lifestyle. It is an inward spiritual reality that results in an outward life-style.

I was reading a section... in A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly called 'On the Ability to Say Yes and No', and I began crying.

That's what I want, I thought. I want to be able to say yes to people, I want to be able to say no to people, from the divine centre. I don't want my answer to be based on what people think of me, on how I can impress others, or on what kind of reputation it will build for me. I want it to be based on the call of God upon me.

When I got home I... decided to give Friday nights to my family. So I did that, and then a fellow from denominational headquarters phoned me and asked me to speak on a Friday night. I had to say no. He said, 'Are you busy?' At that time I didn't know I could say, 'Yes, I'm very busy.' I simply said, 'No.' I'm sure he thought I was shirking my responsibilities. But when I hung up, I felt a Hallelujah! inside. I don't have to be controlled by the opinions of others!

Simplicity is... related to true poverty - not the absence of money but the absence of possessiveness. I have everything but own nothing; everything is available to me, but I control none of it. The words my and mine are removed from my vocabulary...

We must learn an inner spirit of detachment. Remember that Paul said, 'I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want' (Philippians 4:12). The point is that we need divine grace whether or not we have money. We need grace to live in want, and we also need grace to live in plenty.'

Richard Foster, 'Simplicity' in La Vonne Neff et al, Practical Christianity, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1988, pp. 302-303.

The way most of us serve keeps us in control. We choose whom, when, where and how we will serve. We stay in charge. Jesus is calling for something else. He is calling us to be servants. When we make this choice, we give up the right to be in charge. The amazing thing is that when we make this choice we experience great freedom. We become available and vulnerable, and we lose our fear of being stepped on, or manipulated, or taken advantage of. Are not these our basic fears? We do not want to be in a position of weakness.

Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines, Nashville, Tennessee: The Upper Room, 1984, p. 101

Expression of what we find within ourselves, honest and reckless expression before the face of the Eternal, assuming responsibility for what we are, even if we are unaware of it, and asking God to help us to master the wild horses, or to revive the skeletons of horses which we dig out during the long hours of our confessions - this is the psychological method of religious self-education. It is a way of bringing to consciousness our unconscious contents, and of establishing control over our hidden powers. It is the way to mature responsibility. It is the old way of the Psalmist: 'Yet who can detect his lapses? Absolve me from my faults unknown! And hold thy servant back from wilful sins, from giving way to them' (Psalm 19:12,13, Moffatt).

Fritz Kunkel, In Search of Maturity, pp. 253-254, quoted in Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines, Nashville, Tennessee: The Upper Room, 1984, pp. 82-83.

The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody conceals their sins from themselves and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners...

[Jesus] gave his followers authority to hear the confession of sin and to forgive sin in his name... When I go to [another] to confess, I am going to God... In confession we affirm and accept our cross... What happened to us in baptism is bestowed upon us anew in confession. We are delivered out of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That is joyful news. Confession is the renewal of the joy of baptism. 'Weeping may linger for the night; but joy comes with the morning' (Psalm 30:5)...

We must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness?

Luther himself was one of those for whom the Christian life was unthinkable without mutual, brotherly confession. In the Large Catechism he said: 'Therefore when I admonish you to confession I am admonishing you to be a Christian.'

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, San Fancisco: Harper & Row, 1954, pp. 110-118.
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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself. And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe, dear Father, that the desire to please You does in fact please You, and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And so I believe that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust You always; though I may seen to be lost in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for You are with me and You will never leave me to face my peril alone.

Thomas Merton, a prayer in his journal during a time of deep depression. Quoted in John Claypool, The Light Within You, Waco, Texas: Word, 1983, p. 159.

Lord Jesus, speak to us more strongly than all the other voices we hear as we pray together. Help us to name and acknowledge the clamant inner demands. Save us from selfishness, from always wanting things our way. Break into our minds with your thoughts, and into our consciousness with something divine.

Examine our motives, our thoughts, our words, our actions. Judge our imagination and add inspiration to it. Shine with hope upon the dark predictions of failure we have carried with us for years. Help us question our right to resent others when you forgave us as sinners.

Cleanse our hearts, purify our ways. May we hasten to admit our sins so that we have receive forgiveness and freedom from guilt.

You know our weariness in continuing struggles, our sense of failure and disappointment in what we hope for others. Grant to us a trust in your presence and mercy that will triumph over despair and give us a new vision of what you can achieve through us to your glory.

Increase our courage to share our thoughts with each other, and our sins with a pastor/confessor. Build bridges of trust and bonds of friendship to bear the burden of anxiety or the weight of responsibility. May we speak the truth in love; may we be released from possessiveness and share what we have with others; may we enter into one another's joys and sorrows. May we know that a life shared is a life received and a life enriched. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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A Benediction: Jesus died for your sins, so be forgiven! You are loved by the Father, so be healed of your self-despisings! You are accompanied everywhere by the Holy Spirit, so be helped and guided and empowered to live beyond yourself, above yourself, for the greater glory of God. Amen.
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Some further spiritual exercises:

1. Imagine you have just half an hour sitting or walking with Jesus in some relaxing place. Write in your journal what you might say to each other.

2. Think of your enemy, or the person you dislike or despise most. What is the person like? Any idea why he or she is like that? How does God see that person? So - what is to be your future course of action with that person? Again, write it all down in your journal.

3. Confession: write down all the things which bother you, and find a confessor to share them with.
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Further Reading: Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978; Arthur Wallis, God's Chosen Fast, CLC, 1986; Joseph F. Wemmer, Fasting in the New Testament, New York: Paulist Press, 1982; Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988; Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook on Spiritual Disciplines, Nashville, Tennessee: The Upper Room, 1984.

Endnotes. 1. David Tripp, 'Fasting' in Wakefield, Gordon S. (ed), A Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM, 1983, p.148. 2. R.D. Linder, 'Fasting', in Walter Elwell, (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1984, pp.406-407. 3. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, H & S, 1980, chapter 4. I heard Richard Foster give a lecture at Fuller Seminary on fasting where he suggested fasting from such entities as the telephone, billboards, television and other things -- any deprivation that may get our means and ends into perspective for a while. (4) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God, London: SCM, 1953, p. 166.9999999