Students challenged to fast

                                              

On Jan. 12, Westminster Christian High School students congregated in the sanctuary once again to experience chapel together. After a time of worship led by Bekah Sunday and Ian Dutcher, all took their seats and prayed together before preparing to hear Pastor Anderson speak on Matthew 6:16-18.

He began by sharing a personal story. Pastor Anderson explained his first experience with fasting when he gave up ice cream in memory of his friend Cami, who died on her thirtieth birthday from illness. He shared with students that the Lord prompted him to give up ice cream for a year in her honor. During the experience he found that he was challenged in his discipline and focus, and after a year was up, he continued to fast on other things so that he could give similar discipline and focus to his relationship with Christ. He stated that it “furthered my dependence on the Lord for all of my needs.”

The scripture being dissected, Matthew 6:16-18, is a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Digging into the scripture, Pastor Anderson spoke about the fasting habits of the Pharisees, and how they would make the deprivation of their fasting apparent to their peers out of self-righteousness. Verse 18 says “your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

He then encouraged students to embark on a fast of their own. He noted that fasting doesn’t only have to be abstaining from food, but that it could be abstaining from television or soda or something else of that nature. It will be difficult, but Pastor Anderson is confident in its results. He cited his own experience in fasting as evidence, saying that in his fasting he learned things he didn’t want to learn and wasn’t comfortable learning. He endured, however, knowing that it was those difficult-to-tackle things that God wanted him to wrestle with. Fasting pushes individuals to go to God to deal with struggles rather than turning to things like food or television to push the struggles away or distract us.

So, let’s go, WCS community! Let’s take Pastor Anderson’s challenge. What is something that you can try fasting from for a little while?

By: Katie Pluymert