Fasting

Biblically speaking, what is fasting?

Fasting is one of a handful of spiritual disciplines practiced in both the Old and New Testament. The Greek and Hebrew words for fast or fasting meant to abstain from food (and sometimes also drink) for a period of time as an act of worship. In particular set aside for the purpose of fasting. In the Bible, fasting is almost always accompanied by prayer, mourning, repentance, or distress.

In the New Testament, the Greek words most often used are nesteia and nesteuo both meaning an abstinence from food or drink. The same words are used to mean both a voluntary and involuntary abstinence, depending on the context of the passage.

One thing we see in both the Old and New Testaments is that fasting always refers to an abstinence from food, sometimes food and drink, and only once as abstinence from marital relations (1 Corinthians 7:5). We don’t have any biblical examples of fasting from anything else, however church tradition also holds that extended fasts involved abstaining from choice foods while still allowing the consumption of basic sustenance. The modern day equivalent would be fasting from ice cream or lattes for a week or more. There are no specific prescriptions in Scripture regarding what to fast, only descriptions of what was standard practice.

The main purpose of fasting, based on Scripture, is to help bring the believer to focus on communication and communion with the Lord. It is not the act of fasting that makes it an effective discipline for the Christian as is the attitude of our hearts when we fast.

[Isa 58:2-6 NIV] 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

[Jer 14:10-12 NIV] 10 This is what the LORD says about this people: “They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” 11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. 12 Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”

[Zec 7:2-6 NIV] 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” 4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?

In Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 14 and Zechariah 7, God rebuked the Israelites’ fasting because it was insincere. Although they fasted, they conducted their lives with a disregard for God’s word and His heart. Their hearts were pointed towards their own selfish desires and not what God desires. In Luke 18, God reiterates the futility of fasting from those who lack humility when fasting.

[Luk 18:10-14 NIV] 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Like worship, fasting and prayer is another spiritual discipline through which we enter into the presence of God.

Some more examples of fasting:

  • The Israelites fasted in seeking the Lord’s guidance before going into battle (Judges 20).
  • David and the Israelites fasted in mourning upon hearing of the death of King Saul and his sons in battle. (1 Samuel 31, 2 Samuel 1, 1 Chronicles 10).
  • David fasted in intercessory, petitionary prayer for the sparing of his son’s life (2 Samuel 12).
  • King Ahab fasted in humbling repentance upon hearing the judgment the Lord pronounced against him for his wickedness (1 Kings 21).
  • Jesus taught his disciples that certain types of demons could only be cast out through prayer and fasting (Mark 9)
  • Peter received a vision and revelation from God while fasting and praying in Joppa (Acts 10)
  • Early Christians at Antioch had been fasting in conjunction with worship and in seeking the Lord’s will (Acts 13).

The spiritual discipline of fasting is an integral habit in the life of a disciple. Done with the right heart it trains us to resist temptation, it teaches us to submit our will to His purposes, it teaches us humility and helps us focus on prayer in times of mourning, repentance, praise, guidance, petition, and intercession.