The Law of the Fast

I spoke in church today:

I love this gospel. I love that after 43 years, I am still regularly having my mind blown in gospel concepts. Some I have been faithfully living for years and yet I still manage to find myself living well below my privileges because I just didn’t get it. I also love that I don’t get penalized for not understanding concepts sooner, I just get the loving and patient embrace of my Heavenly Parents cheering me on.

The law of the fast is just such a topic. I have lived the law of the fast for a lot of years at this point, I have dutifully paid my fast offerings, and I have taught my children and other church groups about it. I genuinely thought I had it figured out, such that when the bishop reached out a few weeks ago and asked me to speak, I said yes, but I was not super pumped about the topic. Let’s see, the law of the fast: It draws us closer to God, it conquers the natural man in us, it’s good for our bodies. 

Fun fact, an article in Science News in 1979, states that fasting leads to an increased life span and reduces the risk of certain diseases as well as it encourages more vigorous activity later in life. This I knew and loved and taught, and yet over the last two weeks, I have come to see fasting in a new light.

When I first started thinking about fasting, I thought about the various purposes I have taken to Heavenly Father. Here are the ones that come readily to mind for me. I have fasted for my babies to love their father - I remember going into my stake president’s office while we were living in Pennsylvania to renew my temple recommend. Zachary was about a year old. I expressed my frustration that Zachary only seemed to ever want me and how exhausting that could be. The loving member of the stake presidency suggested I fast about it. It honestly had never occurred to me. I’m pretty sure I asked, “I can do that?” Sure enough, I took that concern to the Lord and was blessed with help. I did the same thing when Adelae was about a year old. It was amazing. 

Last year I fasted before going on a cruise with my siblings, their spouses and my parents for my mother dear’s 70th birthday. I fasted that we would grow closer together as a family and that we would also grow closer to our respective spouses. With 8 couples on a ship together for a week there was so much opportunity for drama, especially with our strong personalities, but it ended up being the birthday gift my mother had always dreamt of. And Matthew found his new favorite way of vacationing. It was a win-win for the Marlers.

In January, my brother requested a special family fast over his upcoming surgery to remove his cancerous kidney. He and his wife requested we fast for very specific blessings, and a month later, a few days before his 50th birthday, we received news that every blessing had been mercifully and beautifully given. It was a great birthday present for him.

I give these examples to illustrate that there are diverse items to include in our fasts. Nothing is too silly for our Heavenly Father if it is meaningful to us. 

After I thought about what I have fasted for in my life, I thought about how fasting and attending the temple seem to be the go to answers when someone is faced with a decision, a dilemma, or the need for increased light and knowledge. Why? There has to be something special about them. 

The thought that came to mind was that in the temple we are sacrificing our time to serve someone who can’t serve themselves. We have been taught by President Hinckley that performing those ordinances “more nearly approaches the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God in behalf of all mankind than any other work of which I am aware . . . It is a service which is of the very essence of selflessness.” 

We know that the two great commandments are to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and to love thy neighbor as thyself. When we attend the temple, we keep both of those laws at the same time. That sacrifice and service has the power to lead us to greater personal sanctification and open up the windows of heaven for revelation and divine assistance.

I would say that living the law of the fast, including paying a generous fast offering is just such another opportunity to live both commandments at the same time.

In Isaiah 58, the children of Israel are saying, don’t you see us fasting, this is hard and you don’t accept it? God’s answer, 

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 of the Lord? 

In other words, do you think I want you to suffer for the sake of suffering? He then goes on to very clearly define the fast He will accept:

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? 

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?

 To paraphrase, I don’t want you to fast just to show you are willing to suffer, I want you to fast so you can sanctify yourself AND bless those who need temporal help. Then God goes on to offer some pretty amazing blessings:

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 rearward. 

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

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;

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. (I personally always love when the Lord uses the imagery of fatness - it feels like He wants us to give us more than just what we need - that He wants to be super generous in His blessings)

I read those verses to mean that living the two great commandments through sacrifice and service, leads to greater personal sanctification and opens up the windows of heaven for revelation and divine assistance in profound ways. Magnifying a calling, or parenthood seem to also fall into this category.

So how have I been living below my privileges? I don’t think I have ever linked my fasting to my fast offerings in any sort of meaningful way. I’ve paid my fast offerings monthly probably since I graduated from college - but honestly, it was just a category on my tithing slip along with humanitarian aid or the ward missionary fund. Ideally I paid it on fast Sunday, but if I didn’t get around to it until later in the month, I didn’t think too much about it. And if I observed a special fast, there is no way I even remotely thought about giving extra fast offerings. It is as if I was going to the temple and sitting in the foyer for an hour before going home. Definitely a worthwhile use of my time, but not the purpose of the temple and not nearly as effective for opening up the windows of heaven as performing vicarious ordinances for those who have died.

In the April 2001 general conference Elder Wirthlin said: 

“When we fast, brethren and sisters, we feel hunger. And for a short time, we literally put ourselves in the position of the hungry and the needy. As we do so, we have greater understanding of the deprivations they might feel. When we give to the bishop an offering to relieve the suffering of others, we not only do something sublime for others, but we do something wonderful for ourselves as well. King Benjamin taught that as we give of our substance to the poor, we retain ‘a remission of [our] sins from day to day.’”

Now that I know I can and should link the two great commandments, I want to make my fasts more meaningful. I want to step up my game and think about the hungry and the needy instead of watching the clock tick by until I can break my fast. I want to link my fast offerings in more conscientious ways to my fast and open up the windows of heaven in new ways. 

I have taught my children the law of the fast for several years now. They know to fast for a specific purpose and to begin and end their fast with prayer, and they know their commitment to their fast has a direct correlation to the help they receive, but I have never taught them the crucial second half of fasting, the service aspect. I am so grateful for this talk that allows me to rectify that. I want to teach my children that in addition to their commitment to God, they too can open up the windows of heaven by sacrificing of themselves to bless the life of someone else, whether they know them or not. 

I am so grateful for this opportunity and I am grateful for the blessing of further light and knowledge I have received these last two weeks as I have pondered the law of the fast and the words from scriptures and many wonderful general conference talks. How blessed we are to know that the gospel is simple enough for a sunbeam and yet deep enough to continually learn something new.