“Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus and one of the best ways we have to integrate our entire person, including our body, around God…The ultimate aim of fasting is to get in touch with our hunger for God. Hunger is the state of wanting or needing something you do not have. When we fast, we awaken our body and soul to its deep yearning for life with the Father. We become able to say with Jesus, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” (John 4:32).” -John Mark Comer

Alongside getting in touch with our hunger for God there are at least four reasons we fast.

• To offer ourselves to Jesus

• To grow in holiness

• To amplify our prayers

• To stand with the poor

When we fast we create room for God’s spirit to work in our lives powerfully.

Here is a link to A Practical Guide to Biblical Fasting. There are many helpful tips to assist you as you seek to engage in the spiritual discipline of fasting.

In the Bible, fasting typically refers to abstaining from food, so we would invite you to try this if you are able.

If fasting from food is not an option for you, any area in your life that is producing an addiction is a prime area for practicing some self-denial during this time.

• How/Should you fast if you’ve had an unhealthy relationship with food? This is a great question and one that takes wisdom, sensitivity, and discernment. Below are a couple of links that we hope can help you process fasting if you have (or had) an unhealthy relationship with food.

• Here is a conversation on eating disorders, body image, and Jesus’ call to health and wholeness. In this interview a woman who has overcome an eating disorder in her own life and discusses how she interacts with fasting now. 

• Here is also another great blog post that will help you process how/if you should engage with fasting if you have struggled with an Eating Disorder.

• Recommended Further Reading

• 4 Week Fasting Course - From Practicing the Way