What’s the Most Neglected Spiritual Discipline?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:00:07.840 | John Piper returns home tomorrow

00:00:09.920 | from a very busy holiday travel schedule.

00:00:12.520 | He preached three times at the Campus Outreach

00:00:15.280 | New Year's Conference in Milwaukee

00:00:17.760 | and then turned around and preached

00:00:19.180 | at the Passion Conference in Atlanta.

00:00:21.660 | Busy times, but good times and much grace.

00:00:24.760 | And in the meantime, we've been served well

00:00:26.520 | by guest Dr. Don Whitney, who joins us one last time.

00:00:29.880 | Thank you, Don.

00:00:31.280 | Don serves as professor of biblical spirituality

00:00:34.300 | and associate dean of the School of Theology

00:00:36.680 | at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

00:00:40.480 | He is known for his modern day classic book,

00:00:42.680 | "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life"

00:00:45.360 | and he is also the author of the new book from Crossway

00:00:47.620 | titled "Praying the Bible".

00:00:50.200 | And yesterday we talked about the two most important

00:00:52.240 | spiritual disciplines, which was so helpful.

00:00:55.120 | And today I wanna ask you about

00:00:56.580 | the hardest spiritual discipline.

00:00:58.920 | I know this is a question you get all the time.

00:01:01.960 | So in your experience, what personal spiritual discipline

00:01:06.020 | is the most difficult to pull off successfully?

00:01:10.000 | - My personal observation and conversations

00:01:13.060 | with many people over this subject

00:01:15.140 | is that the most difficult discipline

00:01:18.040 | to practice consistently is fasting.

00:01:20.600 | And fasting is one of those disciplines

00:01:22.800 | that everybody knows about.

00:01:23.880 | You know, it's mentioned in the Bible actually

00:01:26.120 | more often than something as important as baptism.

00:01:29.360 | About 77 times by my count, fasting is mentioned

00:01:33.000 | to about 75 times that baptism is mentioned in the Bible.

00:01:36.680 | And so people know it's there, but they don't practice it.

00:01:40.320 | I mean, for example, we go to Matthew chapter four,

00:01:42.720 | Luke chapter four, okay, Jesus fast 40 days,

00:01:46.000 | then he's tempted by the devil.

00:01:47.760 | Let's talk about how he quoted scripture to the devil.

00:01:49.880 | So we know it's there, we just sort of pass over

00:01:52.040 | this 40 days of fasting kind of idea.

00:01:54.960 | And people will not practice

00:01:57.520 | what they're not taught to practice.

00:01:59.520 | I mean, by and large, people will not practice

00:02:02.360 | what they've not been taught to practice.

00:02:04.040 | If they've not been taught fasting,

00:02:05.760 | they're not likely to practice fasting.

00:02:07.960 | And if someone isn't practicing fasting,

00:02:11.300 | they're not likely to be an advocate of fasting.

00:02:14.200 | It's very hard to get up and preach a sermon on fasting

00:02:17.280 | or to teach a lesson on fasting when you don't fast.

00:02:20.280 | If you're not practicing it,

00:02:22.000 | it's hard to be a very persuasive advocate of it.

00:02:24.640 | So I think that's one of the main reasons people don't fast,

00:02:27.280 | they just never heard anything about it.

00:02:29.480 | But even for people who know

00:02:31.840 | the biblical teaching on fasting well,

00:02:33.640 | it's still hard to practice

00:02:35.260 | because of all the other disciplines,

00:02:37.000 | you feel in your body.

00:02:38.980 | When you practice this discipline,

00:02:40.600 | you feel the absence of food and it's uncomfortable.

00:02:44.760 | And we don't like to feel uncomfortable.

00:02:47.360 | And John Piper has a great teaching on this

00:02:49.300 | in his book, "A Hunger for God."

00:02:51.280 | I love that title, I think more than all of his titles,

00:02:53.920 | because he says, "Fasting is really

00:02:55.600 | "when your hunger for God exceeds your hunger

00:02:59.200 | "for the food God made you to live on."

00:03:02.160 | That is, there never a time when your hunger for God

00:03:04.880 | to answer a prayer, to move in your life,

00:03:07.700 | to move in a situation exceeds your hunger

00:03:11.160 | for the food God made you to live on.

00:03:13.560 | So fasting, seen from that perspective, is refreshing.

00:03:17.200 | And the most important thing, I think,

00:03:19.160 | about the practice of fasting that would help people,

00:03:21.640 | besides the recognition that Jesus does expect

00:03:24.200 | his people to fast, we see that in the gospels.

00:03:26.640 | But the most important thing is to fast

00:03:29.600 | for a biblical purpose.

00:03:31.840 | In one of my books, I summarize 10 biblical purposes

00:03:35.680 | found in scripture for fasting.

00:03:37.720 | For example, for answered prayer is a common one there.

00:03:41.280 | I think when most people fast,

00:03:43.320 | they just see it as something to endure.

00:03:45.240 | Okay, the Bible says to fast,

00:03:46.760 | I'm not gonna eat for 24 hours.

00:03:48.520 | And the whole time, their stomach growls,

00:03:50.920 | their headaches, and they think, man, I'm hungry.

00:03:53.080 | Their next thought is, oh, that's right,

00:03:55.080 | I'm hungry because I'm fasting.

00:03:56.520 | And their next thought is, how much time till this is over?

00:03:59.720 | And it's just something to be endured.

00:04:01.320 | It's a miserable, self-centered experience.

00:04:03.720 | Instead, it should look something like this.

00:04:05.900 | When your stomach growls, when your headaches,

00:04:07.880 | you say, man, I'm hungry.

00:04:09.440 | Your next thought's gonna be, oh, that's right,

00:04:11.640 | I'm hungry because I'm fasting today.

00:04:13.640 | Your next thought should be,

00:04:15.780 | and I'm fasting for this purpose.

00:04:18.780 | So let's say your purpose is to pray

00:04:21.320 | for your child's salvation.

00:04:23.340 | Every time during the day that you get hungry,

00:04:26.120 | that should be a prompt to pray for your child's salvation.

00:04:30.560 | The result is you're praying

00:04:32.520 | for your child's salvation all day long.

00:04:35.800 | That's what you wanted to do.

00:04:37.400 | Therefore, your hunger serves you.

00:04:40.280 | Your hunger serves your greater purpose.

00:04:43.380 | Your greater purpose is not to endure hunger.

00:04:46.000 | Your greater purpose is to see your child saved.

00:04:50.000 | So that failure to see fasting

00:04:53.960 | is just something to be endured.

00:04:55.360 | The failure to fast with a particular purpose in mind

00:04:59.000 | all the way through it,

00:05:00.200 | I think is the biggest stumbling block for fasting

00:05:03.600 | to those people who know the biblical teaching about fasting.

00:05:07.200 | If they don't know the biblical teaching,

00:05:09.080 | well, you can't expect people to do

00:05:10.640 | what they've never been taught to do.

00:05:12.360 | But once they understand that,

00:05:13.640 | I believe the biggest problem is a failure

00:05:16.200 | to see a biblical purpose when they start.

00:05:19.560 | - Yes, that is seasoned counsel

00:05:21.440 | and very practical and concrete.

00:05:24.040 | Thank you, Dr. Whitney,

00:05:24.920 | and thank you for joining us for the last week

00:05:26.720 | as a guest on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:05:29.320 | - Tony, it's been a great honor to be on the podcast.

00:05:32.200 | - And speaking of fasting,

00:05:34.100 | I have to mention John Piper's excellent book on the subject.

00:05:36.720 | It's titled "A Hunger for God,

00:05:38.760 | "Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer."

00:05:41.820 | And you can download the entire book

00:05:43.280 | free of charge at desiringgod.org/books.

00:05:46.520 | "A Hunger for God" is the title again.

00:05:49.480 | We return tomorrow with John Piper himself in the flesh,

00:05:52.200 | and we will field a question from a listener

00:05:54.480 | who is enduring prolonged unemployment,

00:05:56.860 | and we'll address especially unemployment

00:05:58.760 | for those who are enduring what has been coined

00:06:01.160 | a quarter-life crisis.

00:06:02.760 | There's so many 20-somethings

00:06:05.080 | that cannot get their foot into a good career,

00:06:07.900 | and it leads to tensions and questions.

00:06:10.360 | Piper returns tomorrow to address this situation.

00:06:12.720 | And for anything and everything you need to know

00:06:14.640 | or ask or get regarding this podcast,

00:06:17.320 | go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:06:22.320 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:06:24.320 | I'll see you tomorrow.

00:06:25.420 | (upbeat music)

00:06:28.000 | (upbeat music)

00:06:30.580 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What’s the Most Neglected Spiritual Discipline?

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