Does Your Fasting Have a Point?

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2017

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

According to Don Whitney, Professor of Biblical Spirituality, a biblical fast needs a purpose beyond hunger. Christians of a more liturgical bent are in the middle of the ascetic season of Lent, discipling those “desires of the flesh,” hopefully with a measure of cheerfulness. But you don’t have to have high regard for Lent, to appreciate the fact that Jesus didn’t merely command fasting, but instead just assumed his followers would fast. When talking about it in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, he began, “And when you fast.” Why does Jesus—and Piper, Bonhoeffer, and a host of witnesses--think fasting is a normal part of the life of faith? What difference does it really make? Then there is this: If we were to get good answers to those two questions, how exactly do you do it? What constitutes “fasting”? And how can one do it so that (a) it really does increase our hunger for God and (b) brings some cheer into our lives? According to Professor of Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Don Whitney, fasting has a unique quality among the spiritual disciplines. “Unlike any of the other spiritual disciplines, we actually feel this one in our bodies.” It’s this trait that, according to Whitney, serves as a constant reminder of whatever purpose we set out to accomplish through out fast. Whitney joined editor in chief Mark Galli and guest-host, Online Managing Editor, Richard Clark on Quick to Listen to talk about about the reasons we should fast, pitfalls to avoid, and whether a fast from social media really counts as a genuine application of the ancient spiritual discipline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:29.6	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen. Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes and set
0:35.3	assigned time to explore the reality behind a major cultural
0:38.7	event or trend. Today we're talking about the happy topic of fasting. Normally at this point,
0:44.6	you'd hear a lovely voice say, hi, I'm Morgan Lee, but Morgan's on a vacation, a much-deserved
0:50.3	one in Mexico. We trust she's enjoying herself, and that will be her precious moment for next
0:55.0	week. I'm Mark Alley. I'm C.T.'s editor-in-chief, and I'm joined by my producer, who's also my co-host
1:01.0	today, Richard Clark. Hey, Richard. Hey, Mark. How are you? Good. Good. So today we're joined with our
1:07.0	guest, Don Whitney. Don has been Professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at the Southern
1:12.2	Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky since 2005. Before that, he held a similar
1:17.4	position at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri for 10 years. He's the founder
1:23.1	and president of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. Don, thanks for joining us.
1:28.7	Hey, I'm glad to be with you and glad you still remember how to say Louisville, correct? It's true. It's true. So I, so full disclosure,
1:33.9	I took a class with Don on spiritual formation. It was kind of what made him come to mind when we talked
1:39.9	about what we were talking about today. Yeah, the reason why we've invited Don is because he
1:43.8	seems to know a little bit about a topic we're kind of interested in Yeah, the reason why we've invited Don is because he seems to know
1:44.4	a little bit about a topic we're kind of interested in right now. The greatest enemy of hunger for
1:48.9	God is not poison, but apple pie. So wrote John Piper in his book, A Hunger for God. And Dietrich
1:54.8	Bonhofer and his classic cost of disciples, should put it this way. If there is no element of
1:59.6	asceticism in our lives, if we give
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Christianity Today, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Christianity Today and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.