Many people choose to go without food for a given period of time for the health and spiritual benefits associated with fasting. The Bible has many examples of fasting which we can learn from.  

 

Perhaps the most well-known story about spiritual fasting in the Bible is the story of Jesus fasting in the wilderness. But there are many earlier references to fasting in the Bible.

 

Fasting in the Old Testament

We first learn about fasting in the Bible during the time of Moses, in about 1500 BC.

 

When Moses met with God and received the Ten Commandments from Jehovah, he was in the presence of God forty days and ate no food. In this case, Moses was in the presence of the Life-Giver Himself, so food was not even necessary. God sustained him.

 

An Annual Fast: The Day of Atonement

 

God commanded the Israelites to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31).

 

The Day of Atonement was the annual day for the removal of all the confessed sins that had been transferred to the sanctuary. This symbolic cleansing of the sanctuary represented the final cleansing of the universe from sin. The Day of Atonement was a day of judgment. On that day, each person was to humble himself before God by abstaining from work and food, and by engaging in repentance and confession to God.

 

 

Spiritual Fasting and Prayer

 

It was also common in Old Testament times to fast for specific reasons, like in times of mourning and repentance.

 

Persian King Artaxerxes’ Hebrew cup-bearer, Nehemiah, fasted and prayed after he learned that Jerusalem lay in ruins (Nehemiah 1:4). His fasting was an outward sign of his inward humility and dependence upon God. He confessed his own sins and the sins of his community to God.

 

Decided action often follows a period of fasting. After Nehemiah had fasted and prayed, he asked the king to grant him leave so that he could go and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. When Queen Esther understood that all the Jews in the kingdom of Persia were to be killed on a certain day, she commanded her people to fast and pray with her for three days. First, she and her people would humble themselves and seek God’s help. Only then would she go before the king and ask for his help. When Nehemiah and Esther repented and surrendered their wills to God, He spurred them to action. God can do the same for you and me also.

 

 

Queen Esther, via Wikipedia.

 

 

Fasting in the New Testament

 

The practice of fasting continued into New Testament times. The New Testament mentions fasting almost 50 times and has stories about people fasting for the following reasons:

 

• Special spiritual need,
• Repentance, and
• To more clearly know the will of God.

 

Jesus’ 40-day fast

Jesus fasted 40 days in the wilderness, setting an example for us to follow in how to resist and overcome Satan’s temptations. This long fast was part of His preparation for beginning His ministry and for facing the assaults of Satan. Not only did He go without food for 40 days, but His isolation meant He also went without the social contact of friends and family, and without any of the comforts of normal daily life.

 

Because Jesus never exercised miraculous power for Himself, we can be sure that He felt the absence of these things and experienced the pangs of hunger. He felt the physical discomforts of being in the wilderness without any shelter. In voluntarily depriving Himself of the comforts and necessities of life, He felt His dependence upon God more strongly than ever.

 

If Jesus needed to take a break from the comforts of food and daily life to prepare for conflict with Satan, how much more do we need to fast, especially in times of spiritual crisis? We are living in the last days when Satan is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8) because he knows he has just a short time left (Rev 12:12). How can we be victorious without preparing for the conflict?

 

It was on the point of appetite that sin entered this world. Satan overcame Eve by appealing to her senses and she yielded to the temptation to gratify not only her physical appetite,—she saw that the fruit “was good for food”—but her lust for power as well. She believed the lie that she and Adam would “be as gods” if they ate the fruit (Gen 3:6, 5).

 

Where Adam fell, Jesus prevailed. Jesus endured the long fast in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man. If we could understand that Jesus fasted for nearly six weeks so that He could break the power of depraved appetite over us, we would better understand what a grievous sin it is to indulge it. Though He was on the point of starvation, He resisted Satan’s temptation to turn rocks into bread to satisfy His hunger, because He chose to trust God to provide His food when the time was right. He did this so that we could take control of our appetites and lusts in the same way, through total dependence upon God.

 

Imagine if we truly took Christ’s lessons to heart. If we patterned our lives after His holy life, leaning on His power to overcome sin, what a lot of physical and moral misery we could avoid! Too often, in the heat of the moment when Satan hurls his strongest temptations at us, we forget that obedience to God comes only with peace and pure happiness. In contrast, indulging in Satan’s temptations, the pleasures of sin for a season, always produces shame and guilt, and often other very unpleasant consequences.

 

Few of us know what it’s like to follow Christ’s example in resisting sin to the utmost as He did. He died to redeem us from all iniquity and purify us for Himself (Titus 2:14). Few of us know what it means to resist “unto blood, striving against sin” (Heb 12:4). That’s because we don’t quite see sin in its absolute malignancy, as Christ does.

 

Jesus would rather have died than give in to sin. He would not give anything less than perfect obedience to His Father and gave His life so that He could set us free from the power of sin, so that we too could yield perfect obedience. If we understood that our uncontrolled appetites and passions produce the sins that bring God’s wrath upon cities and nations, perhaps we would strive harder to bring all our appetites and passions captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5). Perhaps we would have a greater desire to know and do His will. 

 

We don’t have the strength to overcome our sinful appetites on our own. But how thankful we can be that our Saviour has gone before and has gotten the victory for us! Because He lives and is ready and willing to help us we can be victorious. His “divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3). Praise God!

 

As can be seen, following Christ’s example in fasting and prayer is so much more than simply going without food for a few days. Christ surrendered His life to God and submitted His will completely to Him. Spiritual fasting, then, must be accompanied by a surrender of the whole life to God.

 

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day also fasted. Renewed zeal for their religion following the return to Israel from Babylonian exile resulted in twice-weekly fasting among the most devoted Jews such as the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples (Matthew 9:14-17). But Christ condemned the pretentious fasting of the scribes and Pharisees because it was not accompanied with repentance and humility. (See Lk 18:9-14 and Mt 6:16.) 

 

Jesus once told His disciples that they could not cast out a demon because of their unbelief and because, “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). Christ knew that His disciples had been arguing about who would be chief among them in His kingdom. Therefore, they could not cast out the demon because, like the Pharisees, they were full of pride and self-righteousness. Only through complete surrender to God and humility could they do the works of God.

 

Another New Testament example of fasting shows the relationship between fasting and discerning God’s will. When the disciples began carrying the Gospel to the world, Acts 13:2-3 tells us they fasted and prayed to know the will of God.

 

Does Fasting Win God’s Approval?

 

It’s important to understand that fasting does not incline God to love you or pity you more and consequently persuade  Him to act on your behalf. God has already demonstrated His perfect love toward you (Romans 5:8). Fasting can be seen as a symbol of true heart surrender to the will of God. Fasting does not help you earn points with God, but this doesn’t mean we should not fast for spiritual reasons. 

 

Jesus implied that His followers would fast because He said, “When you fast” and gave instructions about how to fast (Mt 6:16-18).

 

Because fasting without true sorrow for sin and thorough repentance and reformation is not acceptable to God, we must examine ourselves before we begin a fast. Holding onto health-destroying habits like smoking, drinking, eating junk food, looking at or listening to what’s defiling, etc., while we abstain from food for a few days is hypocrisy. Such a fast only increases our guilt if it deceives us into feeling pious and pure. Clean bodies and holy minds are what is acceptable to God. (See Rom 12:1.) What value is a fast if we plan to return to bad habits afterward that will cloud our thinking and interfere with our ability to hear God’s voice and obey Him?

 

A total abstinence from food may not be necessary but an abstinence from unhealthful foods and the temperate use of wholesome food would create health of body and clarity of mind, making it easier to discern God’s will and align with it.

 

In addition, God tells us in Isaiah 58 exactly what kind of fast He prefers.

 

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

 

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

 

The time is always right for the kind of spiritual fasting God would choose for us, a fast from selfishness which opens our eyes to the needs around us. This kind of fasting demonstrates a heart surrendered to His will.

 

May God help us to take these important lessons from the Bible to heart as we think about fasting for spiritual reasons.