I love Maria Von Trapp. Perhaps I should say I love what Oscar and Hammerstein did for her and the lovely song, Do Re Mi. Starting at the very beginning is truly a very good place to start. Regarding fasting, that will take us to Isaiah 58.
In the beginning of this chapter, I believe what we are learning is how people have perverted the fast. Verse 5 is explicit in what the fast is NOT to intend, but from verse 6 on it clearly explains what God intended the fast to be.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 ¶Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be
of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the
foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer
of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 ¶If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
I took this chapter apart piece by piece and found 13 promised blessings, which will each be covered by the post. So here are a few questions?
Why do we fast?
That one is simple. It is a commandment of God.
Satan twists everything today to deceive us so we will not understand and believe in God's perfect love. I would just like to shed a little light on the word commandment. Doing the research on this word made me come to love it more and dread the hearing of it less.
I love my freedoms. I hate to be compelled into anything. Even the very word 'commandment' said by so many people made me cringe. I could not wrap myself around a loving invitation that is always given by God, my loving Father, and by my beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. It did not fill me with the love of God. It filled me dread.
The word command
comes from the Latin ‘com’, which means with,
together, or shared. Mand is from mandare, or entrust.
Man or manus is hand in Latin, to
commit to one’s charge, to put into one’s hand.
Even the word emancipated, “he
who takes by the hand, the purchaser”, as well as manko, maimed in the hand.
From the Greek koinos which means common or shared. To me it is a gentle entreaty to put our hand into the hand of another,
one with a wound, and together accompany the purchaser and follow Him.[1]
God’s commands are indeed gentle,
but they are also very powerful. Fasting is no different. It is a gentle commandment as well as an
ordinance.
Yet they seek me daily, and
delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not
the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of
justice; they take delight in approaching to God ( Isaiah 58:2).
Fasting, being an ordinance, was news to me. I
had supposed that all ordinances were at the hands of the priesthood on the
earth. So what exactly is an
ordinance? Perhaps understanding what an ordinance is and why we need
ordinances would be important to comprehend before we go any further.
The word ordinance comes from the word order, which means, "a rank, a row, a series. The male definition is quite lengthy in the Hebrew. Words such as prescribed portion, specific decree are also a part of the definition of ordinations. The word order appears frequently in the scriptures. We read, ". . . all things should be restored to their proper order " (D&C 20:68), "mine house is a house of order" (D&C 132:8). Mormon even defined depravity as being "without order" (Moro.9:18).
The word “ordain”, is a close relative to other words and has, as its first definition, “to put in order, arrange, make ready, prepare”.[2]
"An ordinance is an earthly symbol of a spiritual reality. It is usually also an act of symbolizing a covenant or agreement with the Lord. It is an everlasting law[3]. It is nearly always an act in anticipation of a blessing from heaven. An ordinance, then, is distinctly an act that connects heaven and earth, the spiritual and the temporal."[4] All of the ordinances of the gospel pertain to the celestial kingdom.[5]
Moses was given a lengthy list of outward ordinances and performances to teach the people through diligent observance the power of acknowledging Christ and coming into his presence. We know that Christ fulfilled all things and that the outward observance is clearly only a teaching mode. It is the inward seeking that we fulfill those ordinances and come into the light.
Now a little something about light. Light orders matter. Close scrutiny leads us to believe that the ordinance of fasting enhances and accelerates the ordering process to go from one prescribed limit or boundary, set by law, to the next. Perhaps you could say that we go from a state of sin to a state of grace. Participating in the ordinances lifts us up to a higher degree of light. A possible view of understanding the power of fasting as an ordinance and to accompany other prescribed ordinances (if sanctified by the Holy Spirit) illuminates a person rising or progressing from one step up to the next one.
Evidently ordinance, order and organize are all a part of the process and progressions of attaining a greater state of glory. We learn in D&C 88:119: Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. That house is certainly not only to be thought of as the Church. It is a directive to every living soul to make himself, even his very person THAT house.
Fasting, most often referred to as a
voluntary abstinence from food, is a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ for
developing spiritual strength as well as providing an environment where
light—Christ—can abide. It has always existed among true believers.
Without a doubt it was practiced by Adam and his posterity from the beginning
whenever they had the gospel among them.
Here is a possible answer to that question: we are given the commandment to fast to draw ever closer to the presence of God, and certainly not only in a figurative sense.
[1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language: Fourth Edition
[2]
Boyd K. Packar, The Holy Temple.
[3]
Blueletterbible.com, Feminine definition of ordinance in the singular.
[4]
John A. Widtsoe, PCG:366
[5]
Joseph Fielding Smith.
Thank you so much for these posts. I so enjoyed reading your fasting blog and have been so inspired in improving my personal fasts. I began last summer fasting weekly on Sundays. It was a blessing but you have led me to be more purposeful. Thank you.
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