62 - Are We Supposed to Be Fasting?

Are we supposed to be fasting? Matthew 6:17 says “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face...”. Does this verse allude to a practice we are neglecting in our lives? What do we know about fasting? In this episode, we dive into this listener's request to learn more about biblical fasting.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to the Exhorter podcast, where we aim to serve love and good works through bite-sized biblical discussion. Is that what we're doing? That's what we're doing. That's kind of the point of this, and when we say biblical discussions, sometimes we don't have all the answers, sometimes we're not laying out everything for you, but we are aiming to model biblical discussions between brethren, ones who actually like each other. We're going to do that today, nate. What topic are we going to discuss and divide?

Speaker 2 0:33

This is where you should put in a really long pause, yeah, and then afterwards I'll say sorry, I was fasting from words. Yeah.

Speaker 3 0:41

Oh, is that why you said bite-sized, bite-sized, yes?

Speaker 2 0:45

Oh, we can't play that intro on this episode because there will be no bites taken.

Speaker 1 0:49

Aim to strip love and good works through moderately Through time-restricted feeding we want a sweet aroma without partaking intermittently. What is that called Intermittent?

Speaker 2 1:02

fasting, yeah, intermittent fasting. So we're just going to wait for another.

Speaker 1 1:05

We're going to wait till noon before we can talk about this.

Speaker 2 1:09

That's funny. I just started, I was corrected the other day. We're talking about fasting everybody, but I was corrected the other day because I said intermittent fasting and somebody who knew more than me said no, no, no, no. What you're describing is time restricted feeding. Oh, my bad. What's the difference? Well, now we're talking about, like you know, health. Well, one is like I fast today, like 24 hours or 48 hours. I'm going to do a fast right.

Speaker 3 1:33

Did you punch that person hard?

Speaker 2 1:35

No, it was in a Zoom thing and they don't have a punch icon. They should, they should no, and so time-restricted feeding, I guess, is where you know. It's pretty self-explanatory, right?

Speaker 1 1:47

You only eat during a certain time Between two time periods.

Speaker 2 1:50

Yeah, no, you only eat between one time period, john. That doesn't make sense. Okay, block your time. Yeah, blocked eating. Well, what does that have to do with the Bible? Yeah, yeah, good, good point, okay. So we got a question after last season. That was how come Jesus says when you fast and not if you fast, but when you fast? Isn't he implying that fasting has a place in our prayer life? Yet it seems like we completely ignore the topic. It's never mentioned or discussed and believers say we don't have to fast. But then why are there so many examples of fasting? And the main question is why does Jesus say in the new Testament when you fast, implying that you're going to fast right?

Speaker 1 2:35

Yeah, and I just want to say that, yes, those were actual words from a listener, and you can do that. You can ask us questions and you can submit ideas, and we would love to hear your ideas and your questions and to design some topics around them.

Speaker 2 2:50

So John would love to hear them. I don't know, he doesn't care. Yeah, he's going to do it now.

Speaker 1 2:55

He cares about this one Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 2 2:56

Yep, yep, yep. Class on fasting. So there's 132 references to fasting in the scriptures, 92 in the Old Testament, 40 in the New. I went through most of those. About half of them are just the phrase hold fast to Okay and so that's not actually like fasting, right. So about half of those are referring to actual fasting and the first reference I found to fasting is can anybody guess? The first reference to fasting in scripture. Okay, well, it comes before that, okay.

Speaker 3 3:33

Probably somewhere in.

Speaker 2 3:33

Genesis. So I read it in Exodus, when Moses is up on the mountain and he's getting the tablets for the second time and he fasts for 40 days and for 40 nights. And I believe that's in Exodus 34. Let me read that.

Speaker 1 3:53

So he dies 40 days and 40 nights. That's a long time.

Speaker 2 3:56

That is a long time, so he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did not eat bread or drink water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments, so that to me that's like miraculous right, because from what I understand I've never tried this Four days without water and you'll die.

Speaker 1 4:12

Yeah, that's what I've heard.

Speaker 2 4:13

So obviously Moses lived out.

Speaker 1 4:17

I mean, he lived a lot longer than us too, so maybe the days are all dead.

Speaker 2 4:21

So I think that in that way that was miraculous. But like we think about what was Moses doing on the mountain? He was obviously, very literally close to God, in the presence of God. That's the first instance of fasting, that it's people in distress, uh. So, for instance, like, let's go to first, first Samuel. Uh, so first Samuel, chapter seven, verse six. Uh, well, we'll start at verse five. Then Samuel said gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you. They gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. And so the Israelites had sinned and they were confessing their sin, they were feeling guilty for that, and so one of the things they did, associated with that, was that they fasted.

Speaker 1 5:22

Was that culturally at the time? Was One of the things they did? Associated with that was that they fasted. Was that culturally at the time? Was that something that we're just not reading in the Bible, that they had previously done? Was it something that maybe they've done since Moses?

Speaker 2 5:32

Well, okay, so I'm curious. So, speaking of that, go to Leviticus 16. Okay, so in Leviticus 16, on the day of when God is instituting the day of atonement, he uses an interesting phrase there, verse 29. He says this shall be a permanent statute for you. In the seventh month, on the 10th day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native or the alien who sojourns among you. 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. So that phrase, humble your souls. There's another version reads afflict yourselves. I think it's the ESV. It says afflict yourselves, and my footnote on that said fast, and so you can go to.

Speaker 2 6:17

There are multiple references to the day of atonement, and even in Acts, chapter 27, paul refers to. Well, we can just turn over there. In Acts, chapter 27, in verse 9, he says something about after the fast. Well, what fast was he talking about? He was talking about the day of atonement, okay. So Acts chapter 27, in verse 9. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over. So this was talking about a time of year and, I believe, paul's traveling by ship here. Paul began to admonish them so that fast again. My footnote says the Day of Atonement, in September or October, and so these are the first references to fasting that we see. As far as like a commandment to fast in the Old Testament is concerned, this one on the Day of Atonement is the only one that I found. Most of the other references to fasting are people who are in distress, seeking God, or are feeling guilty and remorseful, and so are fasting and praying as they repent. Kyle, what were you going to say?

Speaker 3 7:24

None of the Bible examples are for health reasons.

Speaker 2 7:27

Oh, that's a great point.

Speaker 3 7:27

I'll point that one out just as a side note. Yeah, yeah, not that it's wrong to fast for health reasons, but if that's not right either, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, leave me alone now, john, who has never gone more than six hours. I think it's closer to two.

Speaker 1 7:45

Yeah than six hours. I think it's closer to two.

Speaker 2 7:47

Yeah, wow, oh, that hurt, john, don't throw things.

Speaker 3 7:54

No, but I just I just wanted to say that because I know it is you talked about intermittent fasting or what what, what was? The time restricted feeding. Time restricted feeding If you're going to be a little picky about it.

Speaker 3 8:03

I know that's been trendy. I've done some of that. I've gone on 36, 48 hour fast just for the experience of it, but don't confuse that with what the purpose of fasting in the Bible is. So it's totally fine if that's something you're doing for health reasons, but unless, typically, every example is going to be associated with prayer and the New Testament examples, especially the times that fasting is mentioned, it's almost always not exclusively, but almost always mentioned in the same breath as prayer.

Speaker 3 8:37

Prayer and fasting, so they go hand in hand together. My understanding I've always tried to simplify it as simply this, a classic example when David committed adultery with Bathsheba and the child was sick, oh, he fasted. He fasted, yes, yes, until he was told the child. And so the point is what was he doing, though? Was he just not eating, but otherwise caring about his day? What was he doing with his time? Well, he was fasting and praying.

Speaker 3 9:05

He was praying, and so that is a great example, and in my oversimplification of it, it's just in a time of distress, I am devoted so much to prayer and God that my physical needs take a back seat. I don't even want to be interrupted for my prayers to feed my body, because my soul and the needs of my soul are much more important. My relationship with God is in distress, or I'm in distress, and I need that connection to God. I need a prayer, I need that emphasis to the exclusion of even physical necessities. So that's how I tend to simplify the concept of fasting and why it's usually almost exclusively, but usually, associated with prayer. Yeah, because you're abstaining from food by replacing it with prayer.

Speaker 2 9:54

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. When you brought up David, he fasted and prayed while the child was still alive, hoping that maybe God would have mercy and let the child live. And the child didn't pass, or the child didn't live, he passed, and so you know. Then David got up and and washed and everything but, but he fasted along with that prayer, almost as if to say like I'm really serious about this praying, that I'm doing, like I'm trying to get close to God. And in multiple passages that I looked up in 2 Samuel 12, that's the one you're referring to, with David seeking God.

Speaker 2 10:35

In 2 Chronicles 20, jehoshaphat is asking for help as they're about to be attacked. The word sought or seeking is used. They were seeking something from God and they were trying to get closer to him. And as a way to get closer to him or to show that they're really serious about this petition or this request, they were fasting. In Matthew 6, when you fast, I just look at like sound Bible study principles. Is Jesus talking directly to me? No, he's not. Who's he talking to? He's talking to an audience of Jews, and so this was obviously something of cultural significance to the Jewish people. This is something that was commanded as a part of the day of atonement and that they had had examples of, and so it was assumed for them that they would be fasting because they were. They were Jewish and that was part of what they did. But I don't think that he's necessarily saying to you and to me that you and I have to fast.

Speaker 3 11:49

Well, the Pharisees made it a custom, I believe, on Mondays and Thursdays, and so that's where you get Jesus' story there in Luke, chapter 18, about the Pharisee and the tax collector. And the self-righteous prayer of the Pharisee was you know, I'm glad I'm not like this loser over here God, you're lucky to have me on your team and he says I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess. So for them the routineness of fasting was more of an external, and that's what Jesus condemned like in the Sermon on the Mount. It's like you put on this big show. You come out all gloomy looking, your hair messed up, you're unshaven and your clothes are a mess, and people can tell he must be fasting today.

Speaker 1 12:32

You're putting on a show and they put the ash on the faces and so that's the disfigure it talks about in that verse, right? That's where they disfigure their faces and their fasting may be seen by others. So, contextually, another point is, when you find a verse like this, we all look at fasting and we go what's this fasting? And we get so focused on that that we forget that. Therefore, or the context and the purpose of this one, which is don't do things to be seen of men, yeah, if it's just something you do.

Speaker 3 13:01

I mean this falls in line with those weirdos that like to whip themselves on the back till they start bleeding. Self-mutilation yeah you almost think that that will get God's attention, and God's not wanting us to be masochistic, he says you don't need to hurt yourself to get my attention.

Speaker 3 13:18

Yeah, harsh treatment of the body. So if that's what this is, if it becomes routine or it becomes something, but typically it's associated with prayer, because it's just a way of saying I'm putting prayer and God as the thing that I rely upon, this is kind of big deal for me when I think about another. To me, another related topic is gluttony, something I've struggled with. And okay, insert fat joke, go ahead, okay.

Speaker 1 13:45

I mean, you got me just like five seconds ago.

Speaker 3 13:47

I have lost 50 pounds since moving to California. That's why he brought this up.

Speaker 2 13:52

He just did what they did there.

Speaker 1 13:58

Let me sound the trumpet for you viewers at home.

Speaker 2 14:02

Listeners tell me that you're fasting.

Speaker 3 14:05

But this has been a longtime struggle of mine and it's something that's so easy to joke about. What's your comfort food? Okay, in a certain level, there's nothing that insidious about having a comfort food or eating something just to soften the edge.

Speaker 2 14:20

There is a pile of cookies on Kyle's table right now Just saying Keep going, Kyle.

Speaker 1 14:24

That's why neither of us are touching them. We've had two fat jokes label against us in a second ago. Sorry, continue.

Speaker 3 14:31

Get behind me Satan. But the point is, on a certain level it's not that big a deal to have some comfort food, and it's not always a wrong thing. But I found myself turning to food first and it became the thing that I leaned upon in times of distress instead of God.

Speaker 2 14:48

Yeah, you can make anything an idol.

Speaker 3 14:50

That's where I needed to learn to. I need to sustain myself on him. So I need those times of prayer where I just don't even think about food. Where it's, I don't have time to stop and eat. I don't have time for this, I am too busy. I need to keep praying because this is the thing that will get me through, not food. Food is just. It's a patch of duct tape on a battleship. It's not going to fix the problem.

Speaker 2 15:15

So here's a question. I have like three of them.

Speaker 3 15:17

I'm six foot three.

Speaker 2 15:19

Yeah, okay, not that kind of question.

Speaker 1 15:26

How does God feel about us when we fast for the right reason? If it's from your heart, just like your prayer is, then I think that's like a good sacrifice, right. It's going to be well-received. I think he's going to understand you're trying to. The whole point of fasting is to focus on God and put things off.

Speaker 1 15:41

So if you have a problem with technology and you're going to fast from technology for a while. I think any sense of developing better discipline when it comes to righteousness and being focused on God, godly things and focused on God he's going to understand and he's going to agree with and value. I think it's different for everyone. I think everyone's got those things that become distractions to them and they can be overly focused on. Could be food, Could be technology, could be recreation.

Speaker 2 16:13

Yeah, but in the scripture when it talks about fasting it doesn't talk about well, I fasted from riding my donkey, because I really like to ride my donkey.

The Value of Fasting in Prayer

Speaker 1 16:19

But culturally they knew what this meant. Jesus is teaching a principle here of not doing things for vanity purposes and doing things for us, and so the principle I can get from this is still valuable to me, whether or not culturally, I continue the practices from the Old Testament.

Speaker 3 16:36

Well, I heard a really good podcast about this on a little show called Excel Still More, oh, yeah, yeah, which. If you only have time for one podcast, you should really listen to that one. But if you have time for two podcasts, we're glad you're here.

Speaker 1 16:50

Welcome to the Exhorted Podcast.

Speaker 2 16:53

Oh man, that was pretty good. You're welcome, chris, chris.

Speaker 3 16:55

Emerson did a really good episode about. He called it a 30-day fast and I was like whoa, okay, like I've done like 48 hours, you know not to brag.

Speaker 2 17:03

Hang on Speaking of bragging. I did 67 hours and 22 minutes one time Just saying, and then I have not eating. Yeah, just water, just just what coffee.

Speaker 1 17:13

I had black coffee. Okay, well, I can live on coffee.

Speaker 3 17:17

Yeah, black, black, black coffee doesn't end a fast.

Speaker 1 17:20

Okay, I got to beat that now I got to beat that now.

Speaker 3 17:22

All right, let's go.

Speaker 1 17:23

You're doing that, that for the wrong purposes.

Speaker 3 17:26

Okay, so 30 days you must. Be so, spiritual Nate, I'm going to do that and then tell everyone that I did that.

Speaker 1 17:32

That makes me totally, I was just trying to one-up Kyle. He's so righteous. I was just trying to one-up Kyle. I want to be righteous like him, let's do it.

Speaker 3 17:41

Well, he did this, called the 30-day fast, but it wasn't a food fast, he was talking about a digital fast. Food fast, he was talking about a digital fast, oh yeah. And he said for for an entire month. Just see how, how different your life will be, what a difference this will make If anytime you are inclined to pick up your phone for you don't have a purpose, like you're not looking up an address or directions or calling or texting someone that you need to, you just want to, like mindlessly, open up your phone and scroll. Don't and use that time praying, even if it's just like 60 seconds, because, look, I'm in an elevator for 25 seconds. I'm bored. I pull out my phone, yeah.

Speaker 1 18:13

That's stupid. That's because we, as human beings, hate boredom, so silence.

Speaker 3 18:20

But I just thought that was such an interesting concept because it takes the principle of the fast, where you take something that is frivolous, that gives you some level of comfort, but you exchange it for something that is of true value, as is usually the case prayer and I thought, well, it's just instead of food, you're just doing something else, and for a lot of people it's like for me, food is the problem, but I do look at my phone a little too much too, and so I like that idea where he kind of takes a different twist, but on the same concept of you're fasting something, you're removing something and replacing it with something of greater value or importance.

Speaker 2 18:59

That's a great point. It's a good thing that you guys aren't like very loquacious, because then we'd never get anything done. But my original question was what does God think about Equatious?

Speaker 1 19:10

means talk a lot. I think it was a knock against you.

Speaker 2 19:13

No, I was talking about you. Well, John, you talk a lot too I don't. Why do?

Speaker 3 19:17

you use words when few do trick.

Speaker 1 19:19

I learned that word in seventh grade.

Speaker 2 19:21

English Okay.

Speaker 1 19:22

Miss.

Speaker 2 19:22

Peters, she's a very good vocabulary teacher.

Speaker 1 19:24

We're doing a podcast right now, so so that's the point, oh talking. The point is to talk, oh man okay, all right.

Speaker 2 19:31

well, anyways, my initial question was um, what does god think about us when we fast? And the answer is actually in that the passage that's in question here, matthew 6, uh verse 17 and 18 when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, don't do it for show, that's me, uh, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father, who is in secret, and your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. God obviously looks positively on fasting when it is done for the right reason, and I think that we can gather that from this verse without without much question.

Speaker 2 20:03

So my next question is do we have to fast?

Speaker 1 20:05

Well, I mean, do our? Is fasting open to interpretation? Well, not interpretation, but um, shifting the subject of fasting, is it a command to fast?

Speaker 3 20:17

I don't think we have a command to fast, I think the I think you're missing out and possibly your spiritual life is out of balance if you're not, the example of it is given for and is profitable.

Speaker 1 20:30

But I don't see there's a command to fast or not be acceptable.

Speaker 3 20:34

You know, in a certain way, but I think there's value of it. What were some other examples from the New Testament? Didn't they pray and fast before sending up Paul and Barnabas?

Speaker 2 20:41

on their missionary journey and before appointing men for jobs. When there was something big and important coming up, they would pray and fast.

Speaker 3 20:51

Would it be inappropriate? We're sending the Scots, that's Scott Willie, scott Young, to the Philippines in January. Would it be out of line to suggest that the week before we're going to spend a day of prayer for their benefit, and and we encourage fasting, yeah, would that be inappropriate?

Speaker 2 21:14

I don't think it would be inappropriate, I think it would be. I think it would be perfectly biblical to suggest that. And and here's a like, a misconception about fasting Kyle with his week 48 hours and me with my strong 67. Like, it's not about how much time you spend, but what you do with it. Fasting, well, like the day of atonement, it was just from one evening to the next evening as Kyle takes a bite of peanut butter cookie. It was just from one evening to the next. It was just. It was just one day. Yeah, and you know.

Speaker 1 21:44

I think fasting is a great um example and opportunity to help one make sure that they are focused clearly on the goal at hand.

Speaker 1 21:55

So if you have a problem with that, if you have a problem with focusing on the goal and praying and devoting some time, getting together to break bread and have a meal was a lot of their socialization and it is for us too. We get together and we want to eat together and we want to go out to lunch and we want to do those things. Sometimes not having a meal together feels like an awkward time or that we're not spending each other.

Speaker 1 22:22

So I think the point is is don't fill up that time with social things that don't allow you to focus on the point that you have in hand. So, coming together and removing food from the equation and removing drink from the equation and removing anything else, you have a dedicated amount of time to really just focus on what is necessary in hand, which is prayer, which is focusing on God, and so I think that it's a tool and it can be definitely used for that, but I think you can find yourself doing the same thing with removing the thing from your life that is distracting and keeping you from focusing on God, which could be technology, it could be anything Other than the Day of Atonement.

Speaker 3 23:04

there never really was a time limit on how long a fast should be, it could be a single meal. You skip a single meal, so it doesn't have to be like this all day. How would you feel, john, if I invited your family over for dinner and it was like a bait and switch. You got there, there was no food and I said we're going to pray for the next hour and fast, have you not?

Speaker 1 23:25

done that.

Speaker 2 23:28

No, we all have kids. We know how that would end up. No, but for for the adults.

Speaker 3 23:33

Yeah, I think that would be um would God not listen to you if you were eating a slice of pizza as you prayed, like did the opposite of fasting with prayer? I don't know.

Speaker 2 23:43

Isn't that? Wouldn't, we consider that rude. Like to each other.

Speaker 1 23:47

Is there that rude like to each other? If I was like stuffing my? But that's our cultural thing.

Speaker 2 23:49

So we're not supposed to eat well with something in your mouth.

Speaker 1 23:52

He doesn't mind. As long as it's pepperoni, I think fasting is super profitable and super underrated, and I feel like we should probably find more ways If we want to be disciplined people, disciplinely minded people.

Speaker 2 24:05

Culturally, I think for the Jews it was a bigger thing, but I do think it still has a place in our uh spiritual walk today, and it was associated with godliness, um. In luke, chapter two, there's the prophetess anna, who was in the temple daily and and praying and fasting daily, um, and and that was associated with with godliness, so so I think fasting is something that we should probably do more of.

Speaker 1 24:31

Is there anything that we do today? That's like fasting in our own culture. Is there anything that we do, or are we just we're?

Speaker 3 24:38

pretty indulgent, that's what I say.

Speaker 1 24:40

Are we? Do we have the opposite problem Because, at the end of the day, I would think that fasting from your time would be a big deal Meaning we're only here for a few hours a week that we get together as brethren. So when we have gospel meetings that last a whole week or last multiple days, that's a really good example, John.

Speaker 1 25:05

Are you fasting from your personal time to come together with brethren? Are you making the time and the effort to give up of your own personal time to assemble with the saints? And I think that's maybe an example today where we are really bad at giving up our Sunday nap for a group meeting or something right, or we kind of hold on tight to our time.

Speaker 3 25:29

I am fasting from my nap today to record this Exactly, I am so righteous.

Speaker 2 25:34

So, but now are we trying to redefine what fasting is.

Speaker 3 25:37

Well, conceptually, it's replacing something of lesser importance and comfort with something of greater importance.

Speaker 2 25:43

I'm being. I'm being a simpleton here, but when you look in scripture it doesn't say and then he fasted from anything other than food and water.

Speaker 1 25:50

Yeah, but without a command to do it. I'm looking for the principle and the value behind it.

Speaker 2 25:56

So if there's principle, I think it can be extrapolated. Sure, yeah, but how far do you extrapolate?

Speaker 1 26:01

As far as I want to To hold you in judgment.

Fasting in the Bible and Practice

Speaker 2 26:05

Yes, yes, of course I'm just saying are we changing the definition here from what the Bible says? I agree with the principle. Yeah, I look at my phone too much and I think that if I did not do that and prayed instead, that that would be a worthwhile endeavor. But am I using fasting in the same way that the Bible uses the term fast, just like the word miracle? Yeah, we right, we say something is a miracle. You know, he survived that car accident. It's a miracle. Well, you know. Is it a miracle in the same sense as, you know, peter and John healed that guy at the gate and he just he never walked before in his life and now he can walk. No, is it the providence of God? Maybe, right?

Speaker 1 26:45

Yeah, but I also think it's very similar to like head coverings and things where, culturally they have a certain practice. But what we can say is, is the focus there was for respect and for reverence, well, and acknowledging the distinction between male and female, that by speaking it or talking about it, we're binding some sort of legal term on some people and I'm not saying this is one of those things.

Speaker 1 27:20

I don't think this is something to bind on people to fast, but I'm trying to extrapolate the value and principle God's given us through this practice.

Speaker 3 27:29

Yeah, and certainly none of this should be what is good for you, might not be something that should be bound upon another person, and I think Nate is correct. From a strictly technical sense, fasting in the Bible is strictly about food. Yeah, second Corinthians 7 talks about the husband-wife relationship and says that they should not deprive one another, except for a time. They don't talk about fasting from the sexual relationship, they talk about abstaining. Well, and what's it for the purpose of? For the purpose of for a time of prayer.

Speaker 2 27:57

That's right.

Speaker 3 27:57

So it's the same concept, but they don't call it fasting, right.

Speaker 2 28:00

Right, that's a good point. That's a good point. Okay, totally beneath yourself. Okay, everybody. Point for John. So now you know he has one from and that we ought to practice that individually. We shouldn't bind it on others, because even the scripture doesn't bind it on. You know, god is not explicit in his instruction to New Testament Christians like thou shalt fast, no, but we see it as an example of when people were in stressful situations or there was something that they really wanted and they were asking God for it, they fasted along with their prayer, and it was not necessarily a public thing, it certainly wasn't for a show, but but it was something that they, that they did. So I think that we would do well to to fast, and I'm going to throw down a challenge for the three of us and anybody who wants to join 70 hours, 68 hours and one minute. No, I was just going to say I think we should. We should Fast for 24 hours.

Speaker 1 29:00

Should we go backpacking next weekend? No, can I?

Speaker 3 29:04

start after my draft, my fantasy draft. That happens in a couple hours. Tonight. There's going to be chili there.

Speaker 1 29:10

Oh yeah, he didn't say anything about chili. Obviously that's a deal breaker. That's perfectly fine, that's perfectly acceptable. No, but we should. Yeah, obviously that's a deal breaker that's perfectly fine, that's perfectly acceptable.

Speaker 2 29:19

No, but we should. We should plan that no we should, and I'd like to, yeah, and then I think that we should document our, our experience with that, like, well, what is, what is the purpose of fasting, what were the challenges that I face and what did I do as, as as a part of those challenges and even better, how do we record a podcast? Wow, we're fasting to finish up our fast.

Speaker 1 29:40

It's like how bad would that episode be if we're like jittering over it.

Speaker 2 29:44

Oh, we'll have it.

Speaker 3 29:44

We'll have in and out sitting right there I get, I get really angry by about hour 12 no, no, oh, you already know, okay, yeah, yeah and then it mellows out big that's right.

Speaker 1 29:53

Yeah, there you go the hunger pangs all right, you set this up, and I'll I mean the fast like you set it up, man, oh yeah, okay, okay, but we have to pray.

Speaker 2 30:04

Together.

Speaker 1 30:05

Well, I mean, that's the whole point, right? Well, you're just fasting for health, or you're fasting?

Speaker 2 30:09

for oh right.

Speaker 1 30:17

Yeah, we've got the. We have the gospel meeting. What were the team forum coming up?

Speaker 2 30:19

just tell all the kids fast and pray.

Speaker 1 30:19

We're not spending any money on this.

Speaker 2 30:22

We're fasting we're fasting.

Speaker 3 30:24

It's a good way to save some money.

Speaker 1 30:26

There you go, which we don't fund by the church, by the way do you want to do the outro, or I'm fasting from the outro, so I think we should all fast. We should, but it's not bound on any of us as necessary.

Speaker 1 30:41

Well, nate, thanks for answering that question. Hopefully we've answered that question. I think it is one of those principles and one of those things that we don't think about very often and we actually should. We should think about how to be more disciplined and how to focus more on God. Be more disciplined and how to focus more on God, but in the context, there's lots of verses where we see topics that maybe isn't a command and it's some principle we can learn from it. So hopefully we've answered that question. We want to thank everyone for listening to the Exhorter podcast. If you have any more topics like that you'd like to share with us. You can see us online. You can go to the Facebook page website. Just comment on any posts and we'd love to hear from you, and we have a few more topics coming up as we start this next season of the Exhorter Podcast.

Speaker 2 31:21

Thank you for listening Like subscribe share with your friends.

Speaker 3 31:25

Well, maybe, if you feel like you don't have time to listen to our podcast, maybe you can do a fast of your own, like fast, or abstain from a TV show like the Acolyte, or, and instead listen to us. Yeah, we're much more value to your, to your soul, listening to us than watching that pile of garbage.

Speaker 2 31:43

I did want to say something about this episode though. Yeah, that went by really fast.

Speaker 3 31:51

And for peanut butter cookies. Those were okay, but peanut butter cookies are kind of mid. Oh, have her, have her do some.

Speaker 1 31:58

have her do some monster. For peanut butter cookies. Those were okay, but peanut butter cookies are kind of mid oh. Have her do some monster cookies. Have her do some monster cookies. Poor Ashley, Ashley. No, I said that they were executed. Well, Give me a cookie so I can eat it and say I like it Peanut butter cookies are an inferior cookie.

Speaker 3 32:09

I'm just saying that. I told her that today they're dry.

Speaker 1 32:11

Really you don't like peanut butter cookies? I Really you don't like peanut butter cookies.

Speaker 2 32:13

I told her the same thing today. I said I'm not a big fan of peanut butter Honey cookie or other ones. Are you allowed to have?

Speaker 1 32:19

peanut butter cookies in your house.

Speaker 2 32:21

Doesn't this just make one of your kids blow up? No, she's allergic to tree nuts, not fake nuts. Peanuts aren't even nuts, they're a legume.

Speaker 3 32:27

They're a bean. I could answer this like Jordan Peterson. That depends on what you mean by fasting, is it? Just about the food.

Speaker 2 32:38

That was a bad. That was not a good Jordan Peterson, but it did sound like another creepy person Bane it kind of sounded like Bane I was born in the dark.

Speaker 3 32:50

I was born in the dark. Or if you don't know how to answer you can just get out of it by cackling. Is that a common one? Yeah?

Speaker 1 32:57

Just get out of it by cackling.

Speaker 3 32:57

Is that a common one?

Speaker 2 32:58

Just get out of it by cackling, unburdened by your burdens of time.