Prayer and Fasting

There was only one fast that was required by the law in Old Testament times. That was on the Day of Atonement. Four other annual fasts were observed during the captivity, and there was that fast appointed by Esther, and a few others that were called on account of sin or to ask for God’s favour. But most of the fasts we read about in the Bible were private fasts, like when Moses fasted for forty days, or Elijah. Jesus fasted for forty days, too and although He didn’t encourage His disciples to fast when He was with them, He did say they would fast after He was gone.

“Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Matthew 9:15

And fasting was practiced in the first churches.

Jesus' teaching on fasting fits into three verses in the Sermon on the Mount.

"Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Matthew 6:16 – 18

He was concerned to correct the abuse of it, but those verses do tell us that in Jesus’ mind fasting is assumed to be the norm (He said, “When you fast.”) and there's an implication that fasting will be rewarded.

Beyond that, there’s no teaching anywhere to tell us why or when we should fast, and there are no clear rules to tell us how to go about it. We just have to work all that out from the examples we have.

Fasting seems to be a mark of more fervent prayer. It’s used at times of mourning and as an act of humbling oneself. It sometimes accompanies confession of sin, as a mark of brokenness and repentance. It’s used at times of calamity, affliction and danger when God’s people want to avert His judgment. It’s also been known to be used when people are being set aside for a special task.

Fasting is an act of beseeching. It’s an act of discipline that says, “I so much want to see my prayer answered that I’ll even deny myself some food.” It’s symbolically laying aside earthly necessities and saying my hope is in God alone.

I suspect that we’re not given rules so that our fasting won’t turn into a meaningless ritual. It has to be a sincere expression of what’s in our hearts. Remember what God said to Israel when they complained that they’d fasted and God hadn’t heard them, as if their fasting should have earned them some credit?

"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honourable, And shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father."

Isaiah 58:13 – 14

Fasting alone: fasting that’s not a sincere expression of a heart devoted to God cuts no ice with Him.

God has many blessings in store for His people: things He has promised to do. But He would have us ask for those blessings. Sometimes He would have us ask persistently for them, and it seems that sometimes He would have us demonstrate the fervency of our desire by fasting.

Is there something you have been asking God for? You know it’s right that you should and you know He would want to give it to you, as best you can be sure. How fervently are you asking for it? How many dinners would you give up for it?