Mardi Gras no.....Lent yes!

What is Mardi Gras?

Likely more people are excited about Mardi Gras than Lent.  Both Mardi Gras (which is French for "Fat Tuesday") and Lent are traditions that have evolved and unfortunately devolved over many years.   Mardi Gras doesn’t have any remaining spiritual significance other than it is the day before Lent. The origin is reported that people would be fasting starting on Ash Wednesday, and would ‘use up’ their remaining foods that were not going to be consumed during the 40 day period of Lent.   

Over time,  Mardi Gras and “Fat Tuesday” became the opportunity or excuse for one more day or one extreme day to indulge the flesh.  Like the bachelor and bachelorette parties that should be avoided as they are often regretted, I recommend that we just say ‘no’ to Mardi Gras. Having a celebration of a day called Fat Tuesday or encouraging over-indulgence as if some how we are entitled to revel in excess just seems contrary to the whole idea of fasting and discipline.

What is Lent?

Lent is a very ancient season in the church that is a 40-day period of fasting, prayer and renewal preceding Easter.  Lent is an old-English word that really is just another name for Spring, as Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.  In the early church, there were many different times of fasting and prayer and many try to attribute the practice of a 40-day fast prior to Easter to the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.  However, the records from the Council of Nicaea are readily accessible and I find no particular reference to a time of fasting by the Council of Nicaea. History records that by the 6th century, the leaders of the church had a problem in that very few people were participating in the weekly communion service.  Church teaching at that time was most severe, focusing on God’s vengeance, man’s sinfulness, eternal damnation and hell fire.  Most people felt that they were unworthy to receive communion so a 40-day period of fasting was instituted to prepare people to receive communion at Easter.   The Quadragesima would eventually be known as “Ash Wednesday” as ashes were used in the ceremony beginning this period of fasting, prayer and renewal.

A Biblical fast always involves abstaining from food for some period. While it rarely would be a complete abstinence (i.e. only water), it should be deliberate, it should be over an extended period of time (i.e. 21 days, 40 days) and should always involve prayer.

Both 21 days and 40 days are great Biblical numbers for a feast. The prophet Daniel fasted for 21 days and Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days.

The Quadragesima fast or Lent changed greatly over the years.  The people wanted to know what minimally was required to complete the fast (not unlike today) and the church over the years relaxed the fast from one meal a day with no meat, poultry or fish consumed, to a few days of fasting a week and recently for Catholics to not eating meat on Friday during Lent. Many Christians don’t fast during Lent but will ‘give up’ something. This is unfortunate as it is in a fast that we can truly reflect, renew our spirits and prepare for this time to remember the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Unfortunately, many of the churches have abandoned the season of Lent but recently fasting is making a comeback in some of our Evangelical Churches.  For more on fasting, here is a link to my blog on Prayer and Fasting .

Praying and Fasting For Spiritual Discernment

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:14

Here are three important things to remember in fasting:

1) Fasting always involves food!   The Hebrew root  for fast means “to cover the mouth.” The Greek root word for fast means “to abstain from food.
 2) Fasting always  involves prayer! Fasting without prayer is nothing more than a diet.  Our focus during the fast is spiritual nourishment, we can’t neglect out prayers and petitions during the fast.
 3) Fasting always  involves waiting! Fasting puts our spirit, soul and body into a position where we wait to hear, to receive direction and ultimately find.

Why pray and fast?

The prophet Daniel is one of the many examples of Prayer and Fasting for spiritual discernment.  In Daniel 1 we see Daniel requesting permission to not eat from the King’s table  however this is really not a fast as Daniel is simply avoiding the food that were prohibited by God.

Daniel 9 is a great example of fasting and prayer.  

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes[a] (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian[b] kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Note that Daniel pleads with the Lord, he is not only fasting but humbling himself as well through the use of sackcloth and ashes.   How he prays while he is fasting is also a great example of how to pray while fasting:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. (Daniel 9:5-6)

Daniel understands that it is not God but the people that have caused their misery.  They are in captivity and will be for seventy years because they were wicked and rebelled; they turned away from the commandments of the Lord

We should fast and pray the same!

Everyone in the Body of Christ throughout this nation could repeat Daniel’s prayer and fast.  We have fallen so short of what God planned for this country.   The Pew Forum reports that presently less than half o the people in this country that was founded on the principles of God even attend church anymore.

Note how Daniel’s prayer is answered:

20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision. (Daniel 9:20-23)

In this instance Daniel received an immediate answer from the Lord.  In the very next chapter however he is told that the answer from the Lord was delayed for 21 days:

12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” (Daniel 10:12-14)

I’m sure that Daniel was happy that he had decided to fast and pray for the full 21 days.    Daniel understood the principles of fasting and prayer.  It involved ‘shutting the mouth’,  eliminating certain foods from his diet. It was a period of intense prayer; Daniel cried out and confessed his sins and the sins of the people. Fasting involved waiting; Daniel was patient. If the people were to be in captivity for 70 years, he could pray and fast for 21 days to seek God’s release and redemption.