4. Fasting has multiple purposes
   1. Fasting is worship to God

      Fasting is an act of worship to God. Anna in the temple worshipped God constantly with or by prayer and fasting. Luke 2:37-38 She did not leave the temple complex, serving (latreuw latreuw - worshipping) God night and day with fastings and prayers.¹

   2. Fasting validates confession

      The grieving heart of the broken Christian may choose fasting to validate the confession of the heart. The children of Israel often accompanied their confession with fasting to acknowledge their seriousness before God. In 1 Samuel 7:6 "They gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out in the LORD's presence. They fasted that day, and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD."

   3. Fasting demonstrates repentance
      1. Even the unsaved are able to equate fasting as a demonstration of repentance before God. Jonah preached judgment to the city and the king "got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. (Jonah 3:6-9)"
      2. Christians should fast to express sincerity in their repentance. David committed adultery and then murder to cover it up. God declared his punishment to him through the prophet Nathan. David fasted in repentance as the discipline of God unfolded in his life in 2 Samuel 12:16. "David pleaded with God for the [life of the] boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground." David was a man after God's heart not because he never sinned, but because he was broken in confession and repentance before God.
   4. Fasting can accompany major decisions

      Christians emphasize the will of God in all things and seek humbly to find and follow it. Christians position themselves in a place of humility before God by fasting about major decisions. In Acts 14:23-24 "When they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed." In Acts 13:3 "after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off."

   5. Fasting can demonstrate humility in danger

      Esther was going to go before the King and ask for a favor. This was a dangerous action and could get her killed if the king did not respond with favor. Esther said, "Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, night and day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:16-17)"

   6. Fasting can foster humility

      Fasting is not a command. It is a voluntary act of submission before God. God hates pride above all things. Fasting is an intentional act which demonstrates a willingness to be submissive and humble before God. David said in Psalm 35:13 "I humbled myself with fasting, and my prayer was genuine." Christians can humble them selves before God by fasting.

   7. Fasting can be a prerequisite for spiritual power

      The disciples encountered a boy they were unable to heal. Jesus told them "this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting." (Matthew 17:21) Fasting heightens our spiritual awareness before God.

5. Fasting should be for God
   1. Fast for a spiritual purpose

      Jesus commented about the fasting practices of the religious leaders of that day. His assessment was that they fasted legalistically for show, and he condemned them for it. The details of a fast are up to the individual. The principles mentioned throughout the Bible provide the framework and the reasons for fasting, but the intimate details of a fast are most often between the faster and God. On some occasions, church leaders might encourage a time of corporate fasting, but even this cannot be legalistic. Jesus told the listeners in Matthew 6:16-18 "Whenever you fast, don't be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They've got their reward! But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don't show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

   2. Fast for a definite purpose

      The reasons listed above are all valid reasons to fast and there should be a clear reason why you are fasting. There are health and medical benefits for fasting, but to fast for weight loss is not fasting to the Lord (unless you are fasting in repentance for being overweight). We need to fast to and for God. In Zechariah 7:4-5 "the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me?" The answer to the question here was that they were not fasting for God. It was just a legalistic ritual.

6. Fasting should be a part of your life.

   Richard Foster shares the prayer journal of someone's experience who grew through the process of deciding to fast one day a week for a two year period.

   1. I felt it a great accomplishment to go a whole day without food. Congratulated myself on the fact that I found it so easy...
   2. I began to see that going a whole day without food was hardly the goal of fasting. I was helped in this by beginning to feel hunger...
   3. I began to relate the fast to other areas of my life where I was more compulsive... I did not have to have a seat on the bus to be contented, or to be cool in the summer and warm when it was cold.
   4. I am reflecting more on Christ's suffering and the suffering of those who are hungry and have hungry babies...
   5. Six months after beginning the fast discipline, I began to see why a two-year period has been suggested. The experience changes along the way. Hunger on fast days became acute, and the temptation to eat became stronger. For the first time I was using the day to find God's will for my life. I began to think about what it meant to surrender one's life.
   6. I now know that prayer and fasting must be intricately bound together. There is no other way, and yet that way is not yet combined in me.²

Fasting is voluntary denial of an otherwise normal activity for the sake of intense spiritual activity³. Fasting is the humble expression of a repentant confessing Christian before God. Fasting is an act of submission that honors God when it is done for a spiritual purpose. Fasting lays aside normal hunger to refocus and rekindle a hunger for God. Are you hungry for God?

Copyright © 2005 by Kevin Binkley