Fasting and the Pleasure Trap

Fasting

 

Isaiah 58 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

Raise your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;

they seem eager to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that does what is right

and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions

and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,

‘and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please

and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed

and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness[a] will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

and will raise up the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,

and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

 

What are the sins that the people have committed?

Doing whatever you want, going your own way, speaking words that do nothing on behalf of God or others

Exploit others (take from them for yourself),

Quarrel with others (demanding that your thoughts and ways be declared right),

Talk badly about others, pointing out their mistakes and issues,

 

What is their common denominator?

Selfishly doing as you please, taking what you please from others, and putting yourself before God.

 

What is it that God wants from the people?

Help people who are bound up so they are set free from whatever binds them up.

Share your food, shelter and clothes (practical survival needs) with those who don’t have any.

Especially take care of your own family, and do not turn away from them as if they are not your responsibility.

Keep from breaking the Sabbath (honoring God by spending a day not on yourself, but on Him)

 

What is their common denominator?

Spend yourself on behalf of others, satisfying their needs, as well as submitting and dedicating yourself to God

 

 

What will God do for people who do these things?

The Lord will guide you always and answer your cries for help.

He will satisfy YOUR needs, you will be a well-watered garden whose source of sustenance (water) never fails.

He will strengthen you.

He will give you a reputation as someone who selflessly serves God and others, and who brings restoration to others.

Basically, He promises to take care of your needs as you take care of others’ needs.

 

 

Why don’t we take care of others’ needs / Why are we so selfish?

 

 

What is the point of fasting?

Humbling yourself – admitting that you are not God, you are neither your own Provider, nor your own Savior, nor your own Master, but that you are a bondservant of Christ, and that God is your Lord and Owner, and everything you are and have belong to Him.

 

Like worship, it is recalibrating your spiritual compass and your life to the True North, which is Jesus Christ.

You come down from His throne where you keep habitually crawling back to and seating yourself there, trying to be Lord and Master of your own life.

 

Joel 2:12

“Even now,” says the Lord,

“Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance],

With fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored];

13

Rip your heart to pieces [in sorrow and contrition] and not your garments.”

Now return [in repentance] to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness [faithful to His covenant with His people];

 

Confession of your sins – admitting out loud to God your sins and your true repentance for those sins (Nehemiah 1 & 9)

 

Praying for the power, mercy and wisdom of God to help yourself or someone else – this includes deliverance from evil spirits, as in Mark 9. Also Psalm 35, Daniel 9, Acts 13

 

How are we to fast?

It is to be done in secret from others, not making a show of it or talking about how hard it is and complaining about it.  It is ok if you are doing a group fast like we are, but it is nothing that someone else needs to know about unless God directly tells you to tell them.

 

Matthew 6:16 “And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they put on a sad and dismal face [like actors, discoloring their faces with ashes or dirt] so that their fasting may be seen by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head [as you normally would to groom your hair] and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by people, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.

 

It is also to be done out of true love and a desire to obey God, not out of obligation.

 

Jeremiah 14:11 So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good things for this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them [because they are done as obligations, and not as acts of loving obedience]. Instead I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

 

 

 

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Why do we have trouble fasting?

 

The Pleasure Trap – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2btaDOBK8

If we know the right thing to do, then why is it so difficult to do it?

Feelings are signals when something is good or bad for the survival of the genes

We are always looking for ways to increase our likelihood of survival and reproduction

We are always trying to store up what we need as much as we can get.

But we will also always take the easiest way to conserve energy.

 

Motivational Triad:

  1. Pleasure
  2. Pain Avoidance
  3. Energy Conservation

 

  • They took a bird in a cage whose primary goal in life was food and sex.
  • They offered it the option of pressing a button to be released and fly out into the aviary and do what he needs to do to mate, or a trap door that allows a ready female to just pop into his cage. He chose the trap door.
  • Next, they put a glass tube in his head directly into the pleasure center of his brain and gave him the choice between the trap door with the ready female, or having cocaine injected directly to his pleasure center.
  • He chose the cocaine button, didn’t care if he ate or drank and ignored the ready female, and did it so often, he was dead in 12 days.
  • He thinks he is being extremely biologically successful (because pleasure is supposed to increase the likelihood of survival and propagation of his species), but he is actually self-destructing.

 

  • By changing the ENVIRONMENT, we have misguided and hijacked the instincts so it thinks it is doing good things when it is doing bad things.
  • When we have a supernormal stimulus, something that does not appear naturally in our environment, is not characteristic of the animal’s natural history, we run the threat that the creature will make self-destructive, if not fatal, mistakes. (moths to a light – they are naturally attracted to the moon, but a porch light will appear brighter, they will bounce into it, get disoriented, and finally die)
  • People are eating rich foods that are making them obese (enormous quantities of meats, cheese, dairy, oil, sugar, salt), clogging up arteries, causing health problems. When we fill up our bodies with non-nutritional, destructive foods, it leaves over very little room for healthy foods.
  • Dietary Pleasure Trap – supernormal foods hyperconcentrated in far more energy per bite, there is a lift in the dopamine circuitry
  • Stage II – whole, natural foods that our bodies are intended to function on and bring normal pleasure.
  • Stage II – Introduce supernormal processed foods where the healthy parts of fiber, water, minerals and nutrients are stripped away leaving oil, sugar and salt, cheese and there is a lift in the experience. Body thinks that more energy per bite must be the right thing to do. Gets a lift of supernormal pleasure.
  • Stage III – However, we get used to it, so we can’t live on that plane of continual pleasure. The brain protects itself from continual high intensity stimulus. So you get less pleasure from it the more you experience it. We get used to it. Imagine the nice smell of a Christmas tree in a friend’s home – after 15 minutes, you don’t smell it any more. Habituation. Foods that used to provide a supernormal pleasure experience now only provide a normal pleasure experience, the same pleasure we would have eating healthy food, but we are now eating much more of these rich, unhealthy foods in their place.
  • Stage IV – So when we go back to eating healthy foods after rich foods have brought us only normal pleasure, healthy foods will initially bring us subnormal pleasure.
  • So when we go from healthy foods to rich foods, when you do the wrong thing, it FEELS right. When you go from the wrong foods to the right foods, it FEELS wrong.
  • IF we go through stage IV to Stage V, that is the recovery process. It requires several weeks of eating healthy for your feelings to stop being hijacked and misguided.
  • Go on a water fast for just 24 hours – don’t eat all day Sunday until dinnertime. Taste buds get increasingly sensitive, and healthy food will taste better. Putting any system under deprivation for a while is a very good way to recovery sensitivity.
  • Juice for 2 or 3 days. This takes all the fat and salt receptors offline, surviving on the sugar that comes from the juice. This gives the fat and salt receptors a break to recover sensitivity.

 

 

Basically, pleasure becomes our God. It takes priority over God.

 

Philippians 3:18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

 

Fasting helps us disconnect from the demands of our bodies that we have been giving in to.

Fasting also recovers sensitivity in our bodies and our spirit, but

it takes several weeks for what presently feels right and normal to us to be recalibrated to recognize it as wrong and disobedient (ungodly).  That is another reason we do the fast for at least 3 weeks.

 

If you have been giving in to a toddler because you don’t want to see him cry, or you are too tired to correct him, when you finally do correct him, it takes weeks for him to understand you are serious and this is how things will be from now on. He still tries to act as he did before, but eventually he gets with the program. The same happens with our bodies.

 

Fasting is an external show of obedience and surrender to God, telling Him that He is more important than your pleasure.

 

Fasting will require you to call upon and trust in the power of God to help you do it successfully. It will help you reconnect to Him while you no longer rely upon the crutches you have been leaning on.

 

Surprisingly, it has been shown scientifically that the most powerful weapon we have against our unruly body and its cravings is thanksgiving and gratitude.

 

A series of fascinating studies4 by Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab (run by Dr. Wansink) were designed to explain the mechanisms by which negative and positive moods influence your food choices.

Researchers found that individuals select healthy or “indulgent” foods depending on whether they’re in a good or a bad mood, respectively. They discovered that if you think about what you’re grateful for, you’ll eat up to 77 percent healthier.

Why would this be?

Individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative moods, who focus more on immediate taste and sensory experience. Researchers wrote:

“When people are in a good mood, things seem okay and they can take a big picture perspective. This kind of thinking allows people to focus on the more abstract aspects of food, including how healthy it is…

Conceptually, when people feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, they know something is wrong and focus on what is close in the here and now.

We hypothesized and demonstrated that this kind of thinking gets us to focus on the sensory qualities of our foods – not things that are more abstract like how nutritious the food is.”

The research team suggests that if you’re in a bad mood and you want to reduce your temptation to overeat, or not eat the wrong thing, try focusing on something other than the present. If you want to change your eating, change your thoughts—think of something you’re grateful for.

 

So I challenge you now, every time you have a craving or are tempted to go back to whatever you are fasting, start thinking on, listing and saying out loud to yourself all that God has done for you and all that you are grateful for.  This trains your mind to focus not on the momentary and ever-changing feelings and desires we have, but the big picture, the long-term goals of obedience to God and learning self-discipline.

 

The struggle boils down to not getting overcome by the uncomfortable present, but keeping our eyes on all that God is trying to accomplish in and through us, coming to believe that His goal for us is more important than eliminating our present, momentary discomfort..

 

 

Leviticus 16:29 “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month (nearly October) on the tenth day of the month you shall [d]humble yourselves [by fasting] and not do any work, whether the native-born or the stranger who lives temporarily among you; 30 for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves; it is a permanent statute.

 

 

Joel 2:12

“Even now,” says the Lord,

“Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance],

With fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored];

13

Rip your heart to pieces [in sorrow and contrition] and not your garments.”

Now return [in repentance] to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness [faithful to His covenant with His people];

And He relents [His sentence of] evil [when His people genuinely repent].

14

Who knows whether He will relent [and revoke your sentence],

And leave a blessing behind Him,

Even a grain offering and a drink offering [from the bounty He provides you]

For the Lord your God?

15

Blow a trumpet in Zion [warning of impending judgment],

Dedicate a fast [as a day of restraint and humility], call a solemn assembly.

 

 

 

Nehemiah 1:3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its [fortified] gates have been burned (destroyed) by fire.”

4 Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying [constantly] before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “Please, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You, day and night, on behalf of Your servants, the [d]sons (descendants) of Israel (Jacob), confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have committed against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Please remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful and violate your obligations to Me I will scatter you [abroad] among the peoples; 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered are in the most remote part of the [e]heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen for My [f]Name to dwell.’ 10 Now they are Your servants and Your people whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 Please, O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to [reverently] fear Your Name [Your essence, Your nature, Your attributes, with awe]; and make Your servant successful this day and grant him compassion in the sight of this man [the king].”

 

Nehemiah 9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with dirt [a]on their heads. 2 The [b]descendants of Israel (Jacob) separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the wrongdoings of their fathers. 3 While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day and for another fourth [of it] they confessed [their sins] and worshiped the Lord their God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRAYER

 

For healing of others

 

Psalm 35:11 Malicious witnesses rise up;

They ask me of things that I do not know.

12

They repay me evil for good,

To the sorrow of my soul.

13

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth (mourning garment);

I humbled my soul with fasting,

And I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.

14

I behaved as if grieving for my friend or my brother;

I bowed down in mourning, as one who sorrows for his mother.

 

For seeking answers and direction for yourself and others

 

Daniel 9:3 So I directed my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and extends lovingkindness toward those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed wrong, and have behaved wickedly and have rebelled, turning away from Your commandments and ordinances. 6 Further, we have not listened to and heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

 

 

Acts 13 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets [who spoke a new message of God to the people] and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called[a]Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with [b]Herod [Antipas] the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them [in approval and dedication] and sent them away [on their first journey].

 

Acts 14: 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they believed [and joyfully accepted as the Messiah].

 

For battling evil spirits

 

Mark 9:14 When they came [back] to the [other nine] disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and scribes questioning and arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Jesus, they were startled and began running up to greet Him. 16 He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 One of the crowd replied to Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him [intending to do harm], it throws him down, and he foams [at the mouth], and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff. I told Your disciples to drive it out, and they could not do it.” 19 He replied, “O unbelieving (faithless) generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 They brought the boy to Him. When the [demonic] spirit saw Him, immediately it threw the boy into a convulsion, and falling to the ground he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he answered, “Since childhood. 22 The demon has often thrown him both into fire and into water, intending to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 Jesus said to him, “[You say to Me,] ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!” 24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out [with a desperate, piercing cry], saying, “I do believe; help [me overcome] my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering [around them], He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again!” 26 After screaming out and throwing him into a terrible convulsion, it came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse [so still and pale] that many [of the spectators] said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he stood up. 28 When He had gone indoors, His disciples began asking Him privately, “Why were we unable to drive it out?” 29 He replied to them, “This kind [of unclean spirit] cannot come out by anything but prayer [to the Father].”

 

 

MOURNING

 

Esther 4 Now when Mordecai learned of everything that had been done, he tore his clothes [in mourning], and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the center of the city and cried out loudly and bitterly. 2 He went [only] as far as the king’s gate, because no one was to enter the king’s gate dressed in sackcloth. 3 In each and every province that the decree and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO FAST:

 

In secret, without complaining or making it public

Matthew 6:16 “And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they put on a sad and dismal face [like actors, discoloring their faces with ashes or dirt] so that their fasting may be seen by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head [as you normally would to groom your hair] and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by people, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.

Done out of true love and a desire to obey God

Jeremiah 14:10 Thus says the Lord to this people [Judah], “In the manner and to the degree [already pointed out] they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will now remember [in detail] their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” 11 So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good things for this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them [because they are done as obligations, and not as acts of loving obedience]. Instead I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

RESULTS:

It will result in other people coming to you to point them to the Lord.

Zechariah 8:18 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me (Zechariah), saying, 19 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth [month to mourn the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls], the fast of the fifth [month to mourn the temple’s destruction], the fast of the seventh [month to mourn Gedaliah’s assassination], and the fast of the tenth [month to mourn the siege of Jerusalem] will become times of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so [to bring this about] love truth and peace.’

20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will come to pass that peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will come [to Jerusalem]. 21 ‘The inhabitants of one [city] will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to ask the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also.” 22 So many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to ask the Lord for His favor.’ 23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men [as representatives] from all the nations will grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”