got a question about fasting

edited December 1969 in Youth Corner
Here's the thing... i understand what the church says about fasting, and i know its important but abouna always tells us that fasting should bring u closer with God and that its an important thing but.. whenever i fast i don't feel that i have actually fasted and changed spiritualy. I just feel that i havnt had a burger in a long time. Am i fasting wrong? cuz i just dont feel that preventing myself from certain foods has made me closer with God..does anyone else get that feeling 2?

Comments

  • I think the only logical explanation is that your being tempted, do you pray daily? I think you should just make a goal chart, and try to achieve that goal soon, stay away from temption foods, and try to forget burgers, or here is a simpler way, write burgers on a sheet of paper and than throw this paper in the garbage, pretend it's your thoguht and your getting rid of it somehow! How I helped, talk to God about this, and your FOC!

    Forever,
    Coptic Servent
  • well I have heard this somewere b4 that these 2 (fasting &prayer) always go 2gether fasting without prayer is worth nothing ;D hope that helps
  • You posed a very good question. However, you must first define your terms and presuppositions clearly. You have inductivley denoted that you are attempting to fast to the best of your ability and, as a consquence, are still bereft from any spirutal growth. However, your defintion of fasting may be only adequate to a certain extent. There are essentially two components to fasting; repression of a peculiar fleshly desire (which you have suggestively already initiated in) and the proliferation of prayer in one's life.
    Simultaneous to the prospect the Ninevites undertook, fasting is an incoherent process if prayer is not employed as well. While the deprivation of the body's desires allows for liberation of the spirit, spirutale prayer must substitue as the supplement for spirtual growth. My question to you is this; are you accompanying your fasting with an increase in prayer to God? Only after you have placed life's anxieties and cravings under the subjection of our Lord, can you begin to have a conversation with God in prayer. Only when have attained that conversational atmosphere with Christ in prayer, can you begin to feel the actual fruits of fasting in its entirety. I myself am constantly struggiling to conquer fasting and not to let fasting conquer the means by which I live.

    Please be sure to ask your Father of Confession for extra advice as well.

    May God bless you.
  • [quote author=sylvia657 link=board=13;threadid=3479;start=0#msg50413 date=1142888076]
    Here's the thing... i understand what the church says about fasting, and i know its important but abouna always tells us that fasting should bring u closer with God and that its an important thing but.. whenever i fast i don't feel that i have actually fasted and changed spiritualy. I just feel that i havnt had a burger in a long time. Am i fasting wrong? cuz i just dont feel that preventing myself from certain foods has made me closer with God..does anyone else get that feeling 2?


    one of the reasons for fasting is to control your body. don't let the devil tempt u with any wordly food or anything like that. don't forget that it as the 1st thing that he tried to tampt our lord with, BREAD. so by controling your body, u'll be able to stand to the devil physicly, and latter spritually.
  • Believe it or not....Jesus was tempeted with food and he was tempeted to eat but he did not....so when we are been tempeted with food and we do not eat then we are sharing with our Lord something similar and believe it or not....we are getting closer to our Lord during fasting but we still have to pray and try to think of that we are fasting everytime we aproach something bad or tempeted to say something bad.

    pray during any fasting and while not fasting as well
  • Well one of the things that I have heard before is that you need to set a certain goal at the beginning of the fasting period. Say for instance, there is a certain sin that you keep on doing. At the beginning of the fast, you will pray that you will try as much as possible to stop this sin. If you just fasted by food because you just want to fast or because your parents told you so or whatever, then you aren't really gaining anything (even though most of us fast that way). Food as mentioned by gmankbadi is the intial thing you do, but fasting doesn't just stop there, it's a struggle. The 55 days are a struggle, a fight with the devil, it's not easy at all. The devil will just put thoughts into your heard, he will tell you, you are just fasting by food and then might even tell you if you aren't gaining anything, then why fast at all. But you have to be strong and willing to pray and willing to come closer to God during this period. And just have faith that fasting isn't just food...it's a change in your whole spiritual life not just your physical.
  • Sylvia..., I am not trying to be mean but if you cannot gain anything, then there might be a problem. I did a lesson about this with a friend and we found out from our priest and this Pope Shenouda book that fasting SHOULD bring us closer to God and a true spiritual person is one who can feel that. I guess if you don't care, then I guess you aren't fasting wrong, but if you honestly do care then you should try to take it up a notch. Try to pray more, confess more, and stuff like that. It just depends on your opinion between your fasting, your spiritual level, and God.

    love lots,
    CopticChica21
  • i personnally think that u shouldn' t only fast from certain foods but fst from ur bad habits and its like cleansing ur body and a way to start over again. its hard and it takes time and dedication to get it right because we're human and we make mistakes.
  • Hey all,

    i didnt read all the responses, but most of them sound great!

    i'd like to throw in my 2 cents here, so if i'm being repetative, i apologize!

    In the book 'The way of the Pilgrim' (which i suggest to all that you read it if you haven't, its a great book!).... it mentions briefly about fasting.... to paraphrase it, it said somthing like:



    When you fast, you are depriving your body of ceritan foods, but its not limited to that. Food is just one step, you need to deprive yourself of certain habits.

    When you fast, and you start crave somthing, or want to eat somthing but you remember you cant, you realize in this that you made a commitment to reduce sin in your life.... so basically, when you crave somthing, its a physical reminder that your soul is also deprived of things (such as God Himself, certian virtues, God's word, etc), and when you get that feeling of hunger, direct it to the heart not the stomache, and feed your soul... you remember why you're not eating burgers and remember to fulfill the commitment of you wanting to be a better person....



    So basically, when we look at that nice cup of milk (i love milk... its driving me crazy that we cant have it during the fast!! lol) and you think "i cant have you right now".... you also should thing "there's somthing better i can have, God's word/God Himself"....and we go open our bibles and read, or a spirtual book and read, or learn a hymn, listen to a sermon, memorzie a psalm, do some meditation, etc.....

    We increase our spiritual routines....

    Hope that wasn't too confusing or repetative....

    And as all of you said.... Fasting and prayer go hand in hand.... they're useless without each other!

    If i said somthing wrong, im open to correction....

    Take Care and God bless
  • thx guys really. To answer that question its not that i don't care, i really do and im trying to fix my bad habits. Iv been away from the church for a while and im trying to get back, and one of those ways is finding answers to all my questions. Thx guys for the tips it really helped :)
Sign In or Register to comment.