Fasting Survival Tips

Since fasting in Lent may be new for many readers, let me offer seven survival tips for fasting. These are all built upon the experiences of others who have fasted in Lent and have learned wisdom along the way. We need their perspective so that we do not cave into the temptation to be fatalistic (“I’ll never make progress, I can’t do it, I quit!”), perfectionistic (“I have to design the perfect Lent discipline and get the most out of it!”), or moralistic (“I’m killing it at Lent, and God loves me more as a result!”). We also need to be aware of the ways other pilgrims make the journey sustainable.

1. Celebrate the Feast Days

Every Sunday is a “little Easter” and is not included in the forty days of Lent. So feast in the name of Jesus on Sundays! This practice keeps your Lenten vows sustainable and allows you to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection along the way to Easter.

2. Celebrate the Gospel

Friends, Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again! He created you, and when you turned from Him and fell into sin and death, He had compassion on you. He left heaven to give His very life for you, and He rose again in victory over sin and death. Even now He is making all things new by reuniting heaven and earth, and His kingdom will have no end. You can live under His gracious rule now, wherever you are. When you turn to Jesus, He makes you God’s adopted child, whose inheritance is a love that reaches beyond all depth, width, height, and length. When we practice Lent, we need to soak in these precious truths to avoid the trap of works-righteousness. Gospel truth is the feast that makes all our fasting possible.

3. Take the Long View

The daily experience of Lent can be boring or discouraging. We can expect discomfort, irritation, and doldrums. Given that Lent is like a “spiritual spring,” the seeds we sow remain hidden for most of the season. Yet if we persevere, the fruit of God’s deep work in us will eventually grow.

Karen, a friend and leader at Immanuel Anglican, decided one year to give up coffee for Lent. She describes the pain of losing a multisensory, comforting ritual she had come to love: “the smell, the taste, grinding the beans, the way the strong aroma fills my kitchen as my coffee pot sputters away, and the caffeine-buzz feeling in the morning.” Karen was half-expecting that a spiritual high would replace the caffeine buzz, but it never did. “Two weeks into Lent, I was doing okay. I drank hot water and tea but missed the coffee. I hoped to feel some sort of spiritual growth in making this change. I had been taught that giving something up for Lent was a way to cultivate a desire for Jesus. Every time I felt that desire for coffee pop into my head, I wanted to pray that I would want Jesus just as much as I wanted the coffee. But giving up coffee for Lent did not feel good, or even spiritual.”

The harvest for Karen came much later than expected, and was more substantial than a spiritual high. “After Lent had ended I reflected upon the fact that fasting for Lent wasn’t about me feeling a certain way. But after the pain of discontent, it ended! Easter came, and I received incredible solace in knowing that I didn’t have to deal with my longing forever. Lent was about Jesus and how He has changed our reality—my reality.”

And like all of us who are learning to love the future, Karen still deals with the reality of unmet desires. But Lent taught her to take the long view. “Most days I’m okay, but other days these desires seem tremendously large. Life feels hard and I feel cranky. Even though I can’t always feel it, I trust that the promises of the resurrection are real. So I pray and I wait and I believe that one day the reality of Easter will fill my heart and soul and mind and body fuller than I could ever imagine. I will be satisfied once and for all. And my heart will overflow with joy.”

I admire Karen’s honesty in describing the daily struggle of self-denial in following Jesus. We all are on a long journey. A day is coming when all our sufferings will be transformed into glory:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us . . . we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies . . . if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Rom. 8:18–25)

I find that when I am most tempted to give in to despair or self-indulgence, the encouragement of a fellow Lent pilgrim, who can remind me of the long view, gives me the strength I need to continue the journey.

**From the Publisher**

Lent has been described as a "springtime for the soul," a season of clearing to make room for growth. If you enjoyed this devotional, pick up your copy of the book The Good of Giving Up by Aaron Damiani and be encouraged as you participate in a rich spiritual journey.