Fasting: A Posture of Surrender Focused on GodSample

If you were to do a quick Google search on the term fasting, you would find an endless scroll of content on the health benefits of intermittent fasting. These results include content ranging from "how to fast," "how long to fast," "what to do when you fast," and countless diets that incorporate regular intermittent fasting. The content primarily focuses on technique and how to get results from practicing intermittent fasting. Now, from this content, there is certainly lots of great advice to be uncovered for how to live a healthier lifestyle, but what is lacking from the results is content on fasting from a Biblical perspective.

With this apparent lack of available content on fasting from a Biblical perspective, has the practice of fasting essentially become a worldly endeavor focused on improved health? And for you and I, as followers of Jesus, do we run the risk of falling into the traps of pride and vanity when we practice "intermittent fasting" apart from God purely for its health benefits?

Perhaps the words of Richard Foster on fasting can help us wrestle with these two questions. "The Spiritual Discipline of fasting teaches us not to repress desire, but to re-channel it properly. [When we fast] we do not produce the change; we receive it. This is why fasting must forever center on God. If we allow ourselves to take pride in accomplishing it, it serves as false religion."

In contrast to intermittent fasting purely for its health benefits, Biblical fasting creates space to focus our attention on the presence of God.

Whether we fast for one meal, one day, or an extended period of time - fasting is an act of surrender sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we fast, we surrender our mind, body, and spirit to God, acknowledging the words of Jesus, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (See Matthew‬ ‭4:4‬ ‭ESV‬‬) Upon reflection of this verse, Dallas Willard once wrote, "Fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food."

Is the practice of fasting a regular part of your spiritual rhythms? If fasting is a part of your rhythm, what circumstances or seasons of life have led you into a time of fasting?