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How (and How Not) to Fast
Warning Label
Warnings sometimes need to come before anything else. I remember a high school chemistry class where we worked with silver nitrate. Before we learned anything about its composition or uses, or even the experiment we’d be running that day, our teacher warned us multiple times not to let it touch our skin. The apparently colorless solution, she told us, would change color after sun exposure.
When you have a bunch of teenagers standing in front of chemical bottles and wanting to do anything but learn, you need to hammer home that warning first. (One classmate, of course, blithely rubbed it all over his arms—he was covered with brown splotches for days.)
At times, the Bible is heavy on warnings. That’s the case for the topic of fasting. It can be frustrating to those of us who want a straightforward instruction manual for this spiritual discipline, but Scripture gives more directions about how not to fast than it does positive instructions.
So if we want to seek closer communion with God through this often neglected means of grace, we’ll need to start with the Bible’s instructions about the wrong way to do it. Once we’ve been warned off that path, we’ll see the better way.
Fasting
Cassie Achermann, Winfree Brisley
This volume of TGC's Disciplines of Devotion series invites women to stir their affections for God by cultivating the biblical practice of fasting.
How Not to Fast
Don’t Avoid It
The easiest way we can go wrong in fasting is not doing it. Today, this is the most common approach, at least in my circles. Few evangelicals make fasting a regular practice.
I understand why. Amid all the warnings and potential pitfalls, we might feel it’s safer to skip the practice. And in our overindulgent age, where we can order any cuisine to our door with the press of a button, it’s countercultural to intentionally step away from the pleasures of eating.
But if you avoid fasting, you’re missing out. Skipping the blessings of food can be counted as a gain when we focus on God and see it as a gift from him—one that believers throughout history have enjoyed. Jesus assumed his followers would fast after he returned to his Father (Matt. 9:15), and the early church engaged in this practice (Acts 13:2–3; 14:23). Don’t miss out.
Don’t Boast About It
If you take up this discipline, you immediately face a danger: feeling proud that you’re one of the few practicing it. Our sinful hearts are prone to turn even ostensibly good works into reasons for boasting, which strips them of any virtue (like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9–14).
Jesus warns against those who, while fasting, moan and groan in public so everyone knows what they’re doing. They want the reward of praise from men—and that’s all they’ll get (Matt. 6:16–18). The great benefits of fasting will do us no good when we see it as a means for our gain and glory.
Our enemy seizes on this evil inclination of our hearts; he wants to keep our eyes on ourselves and what we’ve accomplished rather than on Christ. So, be on your guard. Don’t let skipping a meal be the means by which Satan devours you (1 Pet. 5:8).
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Don’t Misuse It
We go astray when we see fasting as a technique to get what we want from God. As with all spiritual disciplines, we need to be careful how we talk about fasting’s benefits or results. God chooses to act in response to our Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting, but we don’t earn the outcome by our activity. The Israelites are rebuked in Isaiah 58 for thinking their fasting earned them credit with God.
King David avoided this mistake after being rebuked by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam. 12). God told David that as punishment for his sin, his infant son would die. David fasted and prayed for seven days, pleading for his son’s life—but the baby still died. Yet David got up, worshiped God, and ate a meal. His fast was an earnest, humble plea, and he accepted the outcome. It wasn’t an attempt to twist God’s arm and make him do what he wanted.
How to Fast
So then, how should we fast? I could give you tips and strategies, but your heart’s attitude is the most important factor.
Prayerfully
The key feature of any faithful fast is that it’s accompanied by prayer. Fasting is an aid to prayer—in John Piper’s words, it’s the “hungry handmaid of faith.”1 It isn’t a show of exertion or discipline but an aid to truly feeling our humility, weakness, and need, which have been there all along but are usually clouded by our indulgence and our illusion of strength.
It’s this felt need that God responds to. Puritan preacher Arthur Hildersham puts it this way: “This outward abstinence is not the chief part of a true fast nor the chief help to our prayers. The inward humiliation of the soul is far more acceptable to God and has more force to make our prayers pierce the heavens than all this.”2
A humble heart will help you avoid the traps of seeking others’ approval or manipulating God. And the more you fast, the more you’ll feel this vulnerability and need—and the more you’ll see how much you need this spiritual practice.
So when you fast, make sure you’re setting aside that time to pray. A pattern I often follow is to fast from breakfast and lunch once a week, and use the time I’d normally spend preparing and eating those meals in prayer instead.
The key feature of any faithful fast is that it’s accompanied by prayer.
Purposefully
You’ve probably had the experience of feeling like you don’t know what to pray. You might resolve to pray for half an hour, but once you’ve knelt, said some version of “Our Father in heaven,” and prayed for your immediate needs, you get stuck.
Since fasting sharpens my need for God and strengthens my prayers, I want to use it intentionally. I rarely fast without a specific topic or issue in mind to pray about. It could be a sin I’ve been struggling with. It could be a difficult relational issue. It could be a virtue I want to grow in. It could be a need in my church or family.
Then I don’t just pray from what’s in my head. I read relevant Bible passages, pray through notes I’ve taken from books, or use another resource. For example, when I’ve sought God for revival in my church, I’ve prayed through Rachel Jones’s little book 5 Things to Pray for Your Church.3
I like to keep a record of what I pray about. This keeps me focused and gives me something to look back on. After months of praying about the same issue, I’ve been encouraged by reading through my prayer notes and seeing how God has answered.
Get Started
Fasting is a neglected spiritual discipline. But it has rich benefits if you’ll let it humble and shape you. So as you think about how to fast and how not to fast, remember this main tip: Try it.
Start with just one meal. Use that usual mealtime to pray, and let the hunger teach you about your need for God. Do it on your own, or invite a few friends to join you in praying for a mutual need or concern. Call out to God, asking him to use this practice to bring you to prayer. And see how he works.
If you have any medical conditions that may make fasting inadvisable, talk to your doctor first. Those with eating disorders will likely find fasting more harmful than helpful. Those with a history of eating disorders should likewise exercise caution and seek godly counsel. Remember, fasting is an aid, not a requirement. You’re no less godly if wisdom dictates that you shouldn’t participate.
Notes:
- John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer (Crossway, 1997), 64.
- Arthur Hildersham, Fasting, Prayer, and Humiliation for Sin (Soi Deo Gloria Ministries, 2019), 51.
- The whole 5 Things to Pray series from The Good Book Company is a rich resource to help you pray for your spouse, children, world, and more.
Cassie Achermann is the author of Fasting.
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