Should Believers Fast Today?

While most of us don’t consider a Christian life without praying or giving, why do many of us exclude fasting?

Jesus taught all three as a part of Christian devotion.

Yet today, especially in Western culture, fasting seems to be the antithesis of a fulfilled Christian life. Most of us are well-fed. Fasting almost seems fanatical.

Is fasting an outdated practice from biblical times, like eating kosher food?

Or is fasting essential for our spiritual health?

Jesus Fasted

Do you recall what Jesus did when he was tempted in the wilderness by Satan?

He fasted for forty days and nights (Matthew 4:2).

In what may be the deepest understatement of the Bible, Matthew records that, after Jesus’ fast, “he was hungry.”

When the tempter showed him a rock—round, white, sun-bleached, looking very much like the loaves they baked in those days—Jesus refused to turn it into bread. He refused to break his fast, choosing not to live "by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (v. 4).

If the Son of God fasted, how much more should we?

A few chapters later, in Matthew 6:16, Jesus says, "When you fast . . . ."

Not if but when.

Jesus assumes that his disciples will fast.

When was the last time you fasted?

“A means of God’s grace and blessing”

All through Scripture, we find people practicing this discipline.

• Moses fasted for forty days while receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28). However, note that he also fasted from water during this time, suggesting that God was working a miracle on Moses’ behalf.
• Elijah fasted for forty days (1 Kings 19:8).
• Daniel fasted from meat and wine for three weeks (Daniel 10:3).
• Paul said that he "often" fasted (2 Corinthians 11:27).

Richard Foster's classic book Celebration of Discipline is the best book in recent decades on the subject of spiritual disciplines.

He wrote that "fasting can bring breakthroughs in the spiritual realm that will never happen in any other way. It is a means of God's grace and blessing that should not be neglected any longer.”

Should we fast?

The answer seems obvious.