The Discipline of Lent, Part II

Yesterday's blog post introduced a four-part series on the Discipline of Lent. Lent is our opportunity to answer "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany).
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love. Today, t hen, we'll tackle the second Lenten Discipline: repentance. It's an easy one to tackle because I just blogged on it last week.
Fasting Fasting comes to us from Judaism and was recommended by Jesus both in example and teaching (see Luke 4:2, Matthew 6:16-18, and Mark 2:20). It is a practice that is used to strengthen the spiritual life by weakening one's attractions to pleasures of the senses and redirecting ourselves to the powerful and efficacious Word of God. Fasting, therefore, is not a dietary tool... is a spiritual tool. For this reason, fasting is always coupled with prayer and spiritual preparation.
Fasting, however, does not necessarily mean giving up all food for a day. Oftentimes it is the giving up or limiting of a particular food or food group (sweets, desserts, chocolate, butter, fat, eggs, etc.). Water is never given up in a fast. In addition, children, the elderly, the sick or infirm, and pregnant women should not fast. One practice that you may have heard of is to fast on a particular day, Fridays in Lent are often chosen as a special day of fasting because of it being the day of Christ's death.
By contrast to food, it is possible to fast (abstain) from an activity as well. Fasting from an activity such as watching television, movies, etc. on certain days and/or at certain hours or throughout the season is another way to observe the Lenten fast.
In the end, what you fast from is less important than what you do with the time that you have saved... or what you do with your thoughts when the hunger pangs come on. Fasting, remember, is a spiritual discipline.The idea is to devote ourselves to a time of prayer and the Word.
Many of the following suggestions for fasting have been practiced by Christians for centuries:

1. Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat.
2. Refrain from eating meat (i.e. bloody foods) on all Fridays in Lent, substituting fish for example.
3. Eliminate a food or food group for the entire season. Especially consider saving rich and fatty foods for Easter.
4. Consider not eating before receiving Communion on the Sunday mornings of Lent.
5. Abstain from or limit a favorite activity (television, movies, etc.) for the entire season, and spend the time in prayer, Bible study, and reading devotional material.
6. Don't just give up something that you have to give up for your doctor or diet anyway. Make your fast a voluntary self-denial (i.e., discipline) that you offer to God in prayer.