The vast majority of people don’t think very much about fasting. To many, it doesn’t seem very important. They think: Why should someone fast? Isn’t fasting something that monks do and not your average person?
Actually, the Bible on numerous occasions calls all of us to fast, as a spiritual discipline. However, it’s not always focused on or taught about in churches. So, many people don’t know about the importance of fasting.
The Definition of Fasting:
Ronald Dunn, in his book, Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something: The Incredible Power of Intercessory Prayer, says that fasting is the voluntary abstinence of satisfaction from certain physical appetites for spiritual reasons.
In other words, it is deliberately choosing to let go of an appetite and deny a craving as an act of spiritual consecration and worship. Usually, fasting refers to abstaining from food for a period of time, while still being able to drink water. However, recently many Christians have taken up fasting from other things that may distract them from God, such as television, the internet, or their phones.
The Purpose of Fasting:
Fasting is meant to position our hearts to encounter Jesus as Lord, as we deny ourselves and seek God first. It helps us realize our need for God is more than anything else this world offers.
We need to remember that fasting itself is not humility before God because the Bible even talks about the Pharisees wrong motives when fasting. However, it should be considered an expression of humility.
Consider the following four reasons for why we should fast:
- To strengthen prayer: Fasting sharpens the edge of our intercession and gives passion to our supplications before God. Take Ezra for example. He was leading a group of exiles back to Jerusalem and proclaimed a holy fast in order for the people to seek the Lord earnestly for safe passage. They were about to face dangers on this 900-mile journey, and as it says in Ezra 8:23 “So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”
- To seek God’s guidance: Fasting helps us find clarity when trying to discern the will of God. In Acts 14:23, before Paul and Barnabas would appoint elders in the churches they founded, they first prayed with fasting to receive God’s guidance, ”Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”
- To express repentance and a return to God: This is what the prophets refer to in the Old Testament. Consider Joel 2:12, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Fasting allows the Spirit of God to reign and rule in our hearts and encourages spiritual concentration.
- To humble yourself before God and express love and worship to Him: Listen to Psalm 35:13, “Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting.”
We live in a culture of entertainment, gratification, and pleasure. Picking up something that calls us to deny ourselves is not always on the top of the priority list. Many Christians make excuses for not fasting, such as the thought that will impair their health, or inhibit their busy life schedules. But all of this misses the point. Fasting is something that God calls His people to do, in order to re-focus their minds on what is really important.
Will you join us in committing to a fast?
