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Viewpoint: Every needful thing

"Fast day is not fast!" Our young son thus rendered his emphatic verdict one Sunday many years ago. Sound familiar? Now, fasting was his choice, but whatever the age and however voluntary, fasting can seem long and difficult for us all. So, why is fasting part of the "house" we are to organize, prepare and establish? What are the promises? Can we help fasting come to life?

We are commanded. Without apology for the inconvenience, the Lord commands those who are physically able to "continue in prayer and fasting" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:76), and to "give [our]selves to fasting and prayer" (1 Corinthians 7:5). We are to do it without show: "Be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. ... But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast" (Matthew 6:16-18). We are to seek the Lord through fasting (see Ezra 8:23), to humble and to chasten our souls (see Psalms 35:13; 69:10), and to yield our hearts (see Helaman 3:35). We are to submit — body to spirit, soul to God. We are thus to worship with our small sacrifice at the altar, and even learn to do it with rejoicing (see Doctrine and Covenants 59:14).

We are blessed. Indeed, as we come to understand fasting, that rejoicing is not so difficult. We can even teach our children to be cheerful fasters — there are so many blessings! Our "house" now includes children and grandchildren spread over thousands of miles. But we can be one on fast days and at other special times. An email goes out, and we pull together in faith. Like you, we have found healing, or comfort in death, help with injustice, or needed jobs and many more miracles.

There are, indeed, some challenges that "goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:21). Still, with a house of faith and fasting, they go! We deal bread and it returns an hundred-fold (see Isaiah 58:7; Doctrine and Covenants 82:18). We lift a burden and our yokes are broken, or we are strengthened to bear them (see Isaiah 58:6; Mosiah 24:15). Light and health break forth, answers come, and darkness clears (see Isaiah 58:10) — all as we prepare our house of fasting.

We are taught. Still, there is more. Importantly, in our theme scripture (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118-119) the commandment to establish a house of fasting is surrounded with "study," "seek," "teach," and "learn." Is there a connection between fasting and faithful learning? Can fasting become even more than powerful pleading or submissive sacrifice? Alma said: "I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself" (Alma 5:46).

The sons of Mosiah likewise learned and gained power by study and fasting (see Alma 17:3). This linkage recalls the famous slogan at the entrance to BYU: "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." Could we "enter" our fasting each month with this same commitment? Might we ask in prayer: "What wouldst Thou have me learn, Heavenly Father? Please teach me truth through Thy Spirit. Help me see others' needs, and with that knowledge I will go and serve."

My dear wife, Nancy, says she feels more confidence in the Lord when she fasts, that her testimony is strengthened, that the "best books" — the scriptures — bring her even greater wisdom. I have watched for years as she prayerfully enters her fasting to learn and then goes forth to serve — all for and through our living Lord, Jesus Christ. She has helped to establish for us a house of fasting — a house of God.

Rex J. Allen, director of the Church's Perpetual Education Fund, is the former president of the Switzerland-Geneva Mission and a member of the high council in the Midway Utah Stake.