Why Do We Fast?

Fasting is an incredible gift given to us by God. Biblical fasting is not a hunger strike between you and God. Rather, it is a way to deepen our love for Him and awareness of His presence. It can be easy to think of fasting as a way to add an extra oomph to your prayers. We don’t fast to manipulate God into granting us our requests or to prove to God we are worthy of His love. Biblical fasting isn’t so much about how God responds to your prayers: it’s more about how we bring our prayers to Him. It’s important to understand that fasting is not a way to get a better response to prayer. Rather, true fasting is a means of fostering a better (humbler) approach to prayer and a deeper hunger for Him and His presence to sustain us.

In the Bible, fasting was engaged in for two predominant reasons, greater humility before God and greater hunger for God.

Humility Before God

“God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5; 2 Samuel 22:28). Fasting is a means of humbling ourselves before God. In the Old Testament, fasting was often accompanied by other signs of humility and brokenness, such as weeping, mourning, and lamenting, as well as wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes.

Fasting is a biblical way to truly humble yourself in the sight of God. King David said, “I humbled myself with fasting” (Psalm 35:13, Ezra 8:21). Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance, and a transformed life. (Jonah 3:1-9, Joel 2:12-14)

Hunger For God

Fasting deepens in us a hunger for God. The focus is not to suffer but to lean into the physical hunger and let that be directed towards God as the one we want to be truly hungry for. Jesus prepared for the ministry God had for him by fasting. While fasting, Satan tempted him to create food to satisfy his deep physical hunger. Jesus replied that what truly satisfied him was God himself. (Matt 4:1-4) The physical hunger of fasting is meant to drive us into greater hunger for God, the one who can truly satisfy us.

Through humility and spiritual hunger, fasting builds our confidence and faith in God. As we enter into a place of deeper humility before God and hunger for God, we pray with greater confidence. Fasting purifies our prayers, and we ask for what aligns with His will, not ours.

How will we fast?

As a church, we are going to fast together in a specific way, but you can modify this to fit your situation or health concern.