Comments on: Mormon Prophet Says Abstaining from Water in Fast Not Necessary. Science Says it’s Healthier

By: graceforgrace

graceforgrace — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:16:04 +0000

Stuart,

You are definitely a letter of the law kind of guy, which is fine. Sure the ideal is to follow the fast as the prophets have outlined, but in certain cases, I do not think God condemns those who choose to fast with an honest and sincere heart in a different way.

I hope you stick around and keep leaving comments with other posts because your perspective is one that many Mormons have. Both you and the readers can learn some things from each other. One thing I do recommend in the future is to try and be less condemning. Let God be the judge.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:49:11 +0000

You know why the authority of god was taken from the earth? It has something to do with taking a simple law of God and adjusting it to our suiting because it was “too difficult to live”. From reading these blogs those of you who are LDS…shame on you. You claim to love the Savior but deny His doctrine. A more recent Prophet – President Howard W. Hunter, who I presume you sustained, said this:
“Members of the Church may fast at any time as they have a need, but the fast contemplated on the day referred to as fast day, as defined by President Joseph F. Smith, ‘is that food and drink are not to be partaken of for twenty-four hours, ‘from even to even.” ‘ From even to even has been given the meaning of going without two meals—from the evening meal on the night before to evening meal on fast day.”
I hope you caught site of the part ‘food and drink are not to be partaken’? I have a wife who requires daily medication but would never offend God by watering down His doctrine. Her faith ensures the windows of Heaven remain open to us as a family and our willingness to offer a small sacrifice is noted by the Lord himself.
Your comments are offensive to God and to break the covenants you have made put you at risk. As adults you should be able to control yourselves and your appetites. If you find fasting that hard then I suggest you spend the time you are fasting doing things that do not use up all your energy or make you thirsty and instead pray for the strength to endure. If you will do this, I promise you will have a fulfilling fast and the spirit of the Lord will fill you and support you. You will not be forsaken in your fast but lifted up. Its time you ‘Walked the Walk’ instead of just ‘Talking the Talk’.

By: Austin

Austin — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:37:36 +0000

I have found that the fast is much more rewarding when both food and water are eliminated for a 24 hour period of time. Note that all of the general authorities abstain from both food and water for 24 hours usually starting Saturday afternoon.

While I was on my mission, we taught to abstain from food and water for two meals–but that essentially means 24 hours.

I love fasting because I feel an increased spiritual strength and a closer connection to God and my true desires.

By: Relief Society Lesson #25: Fasting |

Relief Society Lesson #25: Fasting | — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:26:30 +0000

[...] http://graceforgrace.com/2009/05/12/mormon-prophet-says-abstaining-from-water-in-fast-not-necessary-... [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:08:24 +0000

If it’s a choice between fasting with water or not at all, fasting with water is a better choice.

By: Tom Haws

Tom Haws — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:28:38 +0000

I think that the LDS general authorities would generally agree that “two consecutive meals” is merely a custom, as is the water abstinence (I analyze this at http://tomsthird.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-fasting-and-lds-fasting.html).

Sadly, the people lose immense blessings when they think they can’t fast a few weeks because they think fasting means no water.

By: ama49

ama49 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:48:20 +0000

My thoughts are to do what you feel is right with the Lord. The spirit of the fast is to sacrifice something and give to someone who is in need and also develop a more spiritual relationship with the Lord. If it is a sacrifice for you to skip one meal and that’s all you can do, then praise God! If it is more, then it’s all good. My feeling is that the Lord isn’t keeping a tally of how many meals we skip. He’s concerned about our hearts and why we are fasting and how we are using it to grow closer to him while helping others.

By: ama49

ama49 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:45:29 +0000

Hi Pat,

Welcome to the site and thank you for sharing your feelings.

I’m sure that if God were here today he would run things differently than the organization that is…as you rightly point out…run by men. The beauty of having a personal relationship with God is that you can have that independent of other people. The way I look at it is prophets and the scriptures are there for our benefit. God wants us to be happy. Guidlines are given, but it is up to us to decide in certain things what is best for us. Things such as fasting, giving to the poor, loving our neighbors, etc. are up to us to decide what and how to do it and it is a personal thing between us and God.

It sounds like your sister would do well to develop a closer relationship with God and less dependence on the bishop or church leaders…at least from your description of the issue. I have seen many Mormons who unfortunately rely on the leaders more than on God. If your sister prays and feels she can drink water or other things while she fasts and feels the good Lord approves, then she should feel good about it. The important thing is the spirit behind the fast…not the way you fast.

By: FFEJ616

FFEJ616 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:14:45 +0000

My question about fasting has to do with “two consecutive meals”. I assume this is based on the societal assumption of eating 3 meals per day. I however, eat five or six meals per day – a meal about every three hours given my excerise regime. Anyway, does this mean for me that I can start eating in the afternoon after fasting through the morning since I do skip two consecutive meals? Probably not, but just wondering what your thoughts were.

By: Pat Texidor

Pat Texidor — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:00:10 +0000

For a “restored” church that came into existence for the purpose of clarifying and renewing the Christian Faith there is a lot of confusion, disagreement, anger and turmoil…not much different than any other organization…church or otherwise. And this is not even over what I surmise to be a critical issue. One person talks about a “revelatory right”; another talks about a Bishop’s authority to tell you what to think; another talks about a Prophet saying one thing and another says the same Prophet’s teaching says something completely different. If it is true that “God is the same yesterday, today and forever…” then He sure has been changing His mind a lot. In fact, He changes His mind depending on whose mind is thinking and interpreting at that moment. I am not a Mormon (as you can probably tell). I came across this site in search of the “official” doctrine on Mormon fasting. My sister is a Mormon and needed to take medication and brought up the issue of fasting as pretext for not taking the it. She ended up relenting and taking the medication with a small sip of water. I just wanted to check that she was not violating some rule that would put her (in her mind) at odds with her beliefs. I frankly resent the emotional damage the Mormon Church keeps on inflicting on my sister…the guilt, the sense of dependency, the baseless dogma which is merely the result of a history of hodge-podge, slap-together-as-you-go doctrines that change as convenience dictates.