The Blessings of Fasting

A paper that I wrote recently for Greyfriars' Hall.

“Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: … ‘When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’ ” (Matthew 5:1-2; 6:16-18, ESV)

In the few years of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ gathered a group of disciples and taught them about the Kingdom of God. He knew that He would be with them in body only for a short time, and that the teachings He gave them in those days would lay the foundation for the faith of His disciples throughout all future history. Christ spoke to them about the greatest and most essential things: the need to trust in Him, the progress of the Kingdom in history, blessings and curses, murder and adultery, love and hatred, obedience to God, prayer, and…fasting. But if most of these topics are treated in today’s evangelical church as very weighty and serious matters, why is fasting so widely ignored?

Oddly enough, Jesus’ teaching on fasting (as quoted above) comes right in the middle of His “Sermon on the Mount”—a passage that many present-day Christians take as proof that what they do with their bodies is not so very important. After all, didn’t Jesus just finish saying that the poor and despised of the world are blessed in the spiritual realm, where it really counts (Matthew 5:1-12)? Doesn’t He argue that murder and adultery are committed in the heart long before they work themselves out into physical actions (5:21-28)? Doesn’t He say that there is no need to worry about food and clothes—just seek first God’s kingdom, and you’ll have all that you need (6:25-33)? And finally, doesn’t He warn that even people with all the right words and actions can fall short of truly knowing Him (7:21-23)?

But right in the center of this same foundational sermon, there it is—the teaching on fasting. God the Son came to earth and became man, walked among us on two human feet, endured the weaknesses of hunger and thirst, suffered and died and rose again, in part so that He could give us these teachings about abstaining from food for a time—how we ought not to do this, and how we ought to.


As this passage itself makes obvious, fasting was not a new concept in Jesus’ time. The Old Testament Church practiced many kinds of fasts: national fasts (2 Chronicles 20:1-4), group fasts (2 Samuel 1:11-12), and individual fasts (Nehemiah 1:4); annual fasts (Leviticus 16:29-31) and special occasional fasts (Ezra 8:21-23); public fasts (Ezra 9:3-5) and private fasts (Daniel 9:3); absolute fasts without food or water (Esther 4:16), “normal” fasts by abstaining from food only (2 Samuel 12:16-17), and partial fasts (Daniel 10:2-3); fasts for public concerns (Judges 20:25-26) and for personal ones (1 Samuel 1:6-8). Old Covenant believers were continuing in these practices in Christ’s time (cf. Luke 2:36-37). Just as with His teachings on other aspects of the Law, the Lord was affirming the divinely-ordained practice of fasting by setting it free from hypocritical abuses. If His disciples did not fast while He was with them, it was only because with Him they had a continual wedding feast. But in the future, He said, He would be taken from them, and that would be the time for fasting (Mark 2:18-20). The disciples of Jesus learned this lesson well; several kinds of fasts are clearly illustrated and taught in the remainder of the New Testament (see Acts 10:30; 13:1-3; 14:23; 27:33-38; 1 Corinthians 7:5; 8:13; 2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27).

How, then, should we fast? A study of Biblical teachings and examples of fasting will illustrate why Christians ought to fast and when we would do well to fast, while also giving us direction about how to fast. First, however, what is fasting? A survey of dictionary definitions for the English verb “fast” gives the common idea of abstaining from all or some foods (and perhaps drinks as well) as a religious observance. The Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible for fasting can suggest either simply abstaining from food, or else humbling or afflicting oneself through this kind of abstinence (as at the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:29, and Ezra’s mourning for the sin of the people, Ezra 9:5). Although abstinence from food is the common thread running through most Biblical examples of “fasting,” the idea of humbling oneself to mourn or to seek the will of God is also prominent, as we will see.

A first reason why to fast, as described in Scripture, is to recognize our dependence on God alone—a lesson that is especially necessary in our current situation. Americans in general are as well fed as any people that the world has ever seen. Even while people in many parts of the world are starving, it is said that the average “poverty-stricken” American is overweight to the point of obesity.

When Jesus “had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry,” and yet He still refused to turn stones to bread. Like the Israelites who ate manna in the desert, He knew that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:1-4; Deuteronomy 8:3). We may recognize—in theory—our absolute need for God to provide. But until we abstain from food for a few days and feel the extent of our weakness, do we really know just how much we are in need of Him?

Closely related to this first point is the value of fasting for humbling ourselves. The returning exiles under Ezra (8:21-23), holy David when his adversaries were sick (Psalm 35:13), and even the Gentile Ninevites at a time of repentance (Jonah 3:5-9), all fasted as part of the process of humbling themselves before the Lord and seeking His mercy. Some people might object that regular fasting can fail in this purpose and even become a source of pride, as it did with the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:11-12). But the Bible recommends fasting as generally useful for humbling ourselves. The chance of hypocritical pride should not stop us from fasting, any more than it should keep us from praying at all!

One of the most obvious purposes of fasting is to help in devoting ourselves to prayer. Not only can fasting aid Christians’ prayer life by humbling us and directing our minds toward God, but it can also reclaim the time that would otherwise be given to preparing and eating meals. Anna the prophetess devoted herself to fasting and prayer night and day (Luke 2:36-37), and Cornelius’s earnest prayers with fasting were the occasion for the Gospel to go out to the Gentiles (Acts 10:30-31). There are times when we should support the intensity of our prayer by fasting not only from food, but also from sexual relations (1 Corinthians 7:3-5) and even sleep (1 Samuel 15:10-12; Luke 6:12-13). However, we need to be especially careful to set limits to these fasts, to keep from harming ourselves or defrauding our families from what is due them.

A final reason for fasting, and probably the one that is most ignored in our day, is to seek God’s face corporately. Over time Jesus’ words about not fasting “before men” have been perverted to make fasting (if it is practiced at all) into an exclusively private and individual exercise. But the Bible often speaks of fasts on the part of whole communities of God’s people—whether that be a household (2 Samuel 1:11-12), or a church as represented by its leaders (Acts 13:1-3), or the whole covenant community in a city or region (Esther 4:3, 16), or an entire godly nation (2 Chronicles 20:1-4). Some might object that a whole church could not fast together sincerely or that the proclamation of a fast for an entire church body would be too controlling or cult-like. But these objections fly in the face of what we see God’s people doing throughout the Bible, and they prove nothing against churchwide fasts that could not be argued equally well against churchwide worship services. When there are occasions that call for it, the American Church must recover the practice of corporate prayer with fasting. This may well be the one thing that can turn back the tide of selfish individualism among American Christians before it completely overwhelms us.

What, then, are the right occasions for fasting? Several different categories can be found in the Bible.

First, there are fasts at times of mourning and repentance. A fast can at once help us express humility as we consider past sins and defeats, and prepare us for a chastened and wiser life in the future (cf. 1 Samuel 31:8-13; 1 Kings 21:27-29).

Second, there are fasts at times of personal or social crisis. On these occasions, fasting helps add intensity to our prayers as we cry out to the Lord for deliverance (cf. Judges 20:25-26; Esther 4:1-3).

Third, there are fasts meant to support any other occasions of earnest, focused prayer. Daniel fasted at the end of Judah’s seventy years of captivity as he prayed for God to honor His promise by returning the exiles to their land (Daniel 9:1-3). Times of special prayer with fasting are the only exception to Paul’s command that husbands and wives not deprive each other of physical relations (1 Corinthians 7:5).

Fourth, there are fasts at major beginnings and commissionings, to devote the work and the people to God. Thus Paul fasted for three days at the beginning of his Christian life (Acts 9:8), the leaders of the Antiochian church fasted twice as Paul and Barnabas were set aside for missionary work (Acts 13:1-3), and the ordination of elders in every new church was accompanied by prayer and fasting (Acts 14:23).

The Word of God gives us several cautions that ought to accompany our fasting. In a culture where the habit of godly fasting has all but disappeared, it is a higher priority for us to recover the practice of fasting than to guard against potential abuses. “It’s hard to steer a parked car,” as the saying goes. However, in the hope that the American Church will soon see a revival of Biblical fasting in both its corporate and individual forms, we may also consider a few warnings. First, of course, we must be on guard against hypocrisy and be sure that our fasting is for the Lord, not merely for men to see (Matthew 6:16-18; cf. Luke 18:11-12). We should protect against the pitfalls of extreme self-denial by concentrating on the rich blessings we receive in fasting: the Word of God (Luke 4:1-4; cf. Job 23:12), the nourishment of obedience (John 4:31-34), and the pleasure of restoring the poor (Isaiah 58). We must be careful to balance fasting with feasting, so that our fasts do not lose their meaning (cf. Zechariah 7:5-6; 8:19). And finally, we need to remember that fasting itself is temporary. It will come to an end with the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9), in which all our fasts and all our feasts will be fulfilled in one glorious, never-ending banquet.