What Is Fasting All About?

This is the season that for many Christians is known as Lent.  It is a time for us to prepare our lives for the crucifixion of our Lord.  During this time, it is the practice of many Christians to fast.  But exactly what does that mean and why do it at all? 

Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines talked about throughout the entire old and new testaments.  It is a discipline of devotion and repentance and requires that you give something up (sacrifice it) for a period of time.  When you long for what you have decided to give up, it serves as a reminder to pray.

What you fast and how long you fast is up to each individual.  For Lent we fast for forty days (not including Sundays which is a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection). 

 Some will fast from chocolate, others will fast from meat.  Still others may fast from television or time on the computer surfing the internet.  The point is to devote time to God in prayer throughout the time of the fast. 

But it is also important to notice how you are to fast. Jesus is very specific that you are to fast in quietness without drawing attention to yourself so hat others won’t think of you as a kind of super-Christian.

What kind of fast is God looking for?  Does it count if I give up the cooked carrots I hate?  Not exactly.  Scripture is clear that it must be a fast of atonement, a fast of repentance, a fast where we turn from our unrighteous ways and live into God’s ways and God’s justice

So during this season of Lent I would suggest a different kind of fast – a fast that will change our lives perhaps forever, bringing us closer to being the people God would have us be. 

Let us fast from criticism and feast on praise; fast from self-pity and feast on joy; fast from war and feast on peace; fast from jealousy and feast on love; Fast from fear and feast on faith.  Let us live as God would have us live.