What is Fasting All About?

Food. There is nothing more social than food. We eat meals around the table with the ones we love. We go out to eat at restaurants surrounded by people. We have potluck meals at our churches to be in community and enjoy fellowship. Even in the first-century Church, we read about how they broke bread together as part of their love for one another and Christ. We have blogs, TV shows, websites, how-to videos, and cookbooks that teach how to make better food that looks, tastes, and smells like it was made in a 5-star restaurant. It seems like everyone today is a “foodie.”

So it totally makes sense that we cringe when we hear the word, “fasting.” The idea of giving up for any amount of time feels insurmountable to most, even though the human body is more than capable of dealing with it. In fact, there are some serious benefits to fasting that we’ll get into on another day. For now, let’s talk about the spiritual benefits. This is something practiced in both the Old and New Testaments. We read about Ezra and Jonah fasting, as well as the Israelite army after losing 40,000 soldiers in battle. Jesus fasted before He began His ministry for 40 days, while we also read of Paul and Barnabas fasting for the elders of the churches. It’s the physical emptying of the body and depending on God for our sustenance, not food.

Here are some reasons for fasting and scriptural examples of it.

We fast to worship. It’s one of the ways we show God’s worthiness in putting our trust in Him. In Luke 2, we read of the Prophetess, Anna, who fasted as part of her worship. 

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
 Luke 2:36–37

It’s a way to get clarity when seeking Wisdom from God. We remove all other needs and place them in God’s hands so that we can better discern what His will is for us. Paul and Barnabas do this in Acts.

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. 
Acts 14:21–23

Fasting is a way to seek deliverance from situations out of our control. Ezra asked for corporate fasting for the safe travel of the Israelites going 900 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Ezra 8:21–23

Grief is another reason to fast. Again, it shows a desperate need for God beyond anything physical. Nehemiah fasted out of mourning when he heard of the destruction of the wall around Jerusalem and the vulnerability of the people living there.

And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:3–4

We also fast as a showing of repentance. It’s a way that we show we have changed our ways and are completely in the hands of God and His protection. When Jonah came to Ninevah to warn them of their impending judgment and ultimate doom, the king ordered everyone to fast. 

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 
Jonah 3:6–10

Now, while there are no commands from God to fast, it’s pretty obvious that fasting has been practiced for thousands of years. Jesus Himself did it after all. It’s a form of submission and omission that allows the person practicing it to learn reliance on something other than what they physically know.

Finally, let’s talk about what fasting is not. It’s not giving up things that are NOT food. We hear of people doing social media fasts or fasting from the internet. Those things are not fasting. They are abstaining. Biblically speaking, the only fasting talked about is food-related. The word “Fast” literally means “to abstain from all food” or “to eat only sparingly or of certain kinds of food, especially as a religious observance.” There’s a reason the first meal we eat each day is called a “break” fast. We are quite literally breaking the fast that we’ve been doing since we went to bed the night before. 

This isn’t to say that abstaining from things like social media and the internet isn’t valuable. It is so important that we learn to abstain from things. This isn’t, however, fasting. There’s nothing our bodies need more than sustenance. Social media and the internet don’t keep us alive. We’ll be talking about abstinence the first week of March, and it’s something that we all need to do. For now, though, we’ll focus on fasting and what God’s plan is through that. So buckle up. This will be a fun ride.