![]() The Bible is full of examples of people who have abstained from food to seek God: If you’re turning a fast into a spiritual ego boost, you’ve missed the point entirely. Fasting is a practice of humbling yourself before God. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16–18, NIV)Ĭhristians shouldn’t fast in order to look pious or righteous. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. ![]() Likewise, when Jesus instructs His followers on how to fast, he tells them not to do so for show. The Israelites were merely putting on a show of fasting for God without truly following Him. Then your light will rise in the darkness,Īnd your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:9–10, New International Version) With the pointing finger and malicious talk,Īnd if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, Through Isaiah, God tells the people that He doesn’t want them to go a day without food He wants them to abstain from the ways they’ve oppressed one another. Employers withhold pay from the workers, and the people act violently toward each other. God turns the tables on Israel, pointing out how the Israelites are oppressing their own people. However, the help does not come, and the people complain. In Isaiah 58, God sees the nation of Israel abstaining from food for a day in order to seek help from God: justice for Israel and judgment on those who have oppressed Israel. Rather, both focus on the heart of the person fasting. ![]() But neither of these passages gives us specifics on how to abstain from food. However, when Christians discuss fasting, two key passages often come up: one from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and one from Jesus himself. Prayer and Fasting in the Bibleįasting is mentioned throughout the Bible, in both the Old Testament (written before Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection) and the New Testament (written after). Jesus may not have commanded his followers to fast, but He expected them to. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives His followers instructions on how to fast, specifically telling them not to make a show of fasting like others in their culture (Matthew 6:16–18). But Jesus assumed they would fast after he returned to the Father (Luke 5:33–34). So did the Pharisees, a group of religious leaders who opposed Jesus’ teachings and conspired to kill Him!ĭuring Jesus’ earthly ministry, His followers didn’t fast. The disciples of John the Baptist, an important prophet who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry, often fasted. But in Jesus’ culture, it was weird for a religious person not to fast. Do Christians Need to Fast?įasting might sound sensational today. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on traditional Christian fasting: abstaining from food. You might know people who have gone on a “social media fast” or a “screen fast” for spiritual reasons. Some Christians use the word “fast” when abstaining from pleasures besides food, like TV, internet or, for married couples, sex. If you want to jump ahead, here’s what we’re going to look at: Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of superior satisfaction in God, it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away.”īut how does biblical fasting work - and how can someone do it today? In this guide, we’re going to cover what every Christian should know about fasting: what it is and how it works. In his book “Hunger for God,” John Piper writes: “Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God. But fasting was a very common religious practice when the Bible was written. If you’re used to a routine of “three square meals a day,” going without food as a spiritual practice may sound strange. For thousands of years, biblical fasting has been the practice of abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.
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