In his Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon said, “True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever ‘call’ a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”
How does a pastor progress in the holiness (also known as godliness, Christlikeness, and sanctification) to which God has called him? The apostle Paul wrote to his son in the ministry—Timothy—about this very point: “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7, NASB). How do pastors discipline themselves in obedience to this command? They do so through what has often been called the “spiritual disciplines,” the practices found in Scripture that promote godliness.
This is the sixth in a series of articles on pastors and the spiritual disciplines, which have focused on the personal spiritual disciplines. I have yet to address the equally important interpersonal spiritual disciplines, the biblical disciplines we participate in with other believers, such as congregational worship, fellowship, corporate prayer, and more.
One of the disciplines we can practice either alone or with others (though it’s probably most commonly done privately) is fasting.
Fasting defined
Christian fasting is a believer’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. A person may fast for health purposes, and while this can be a good thing, it’s not fasting as described in Scripture (although health benefits can result from Christian fasting). While it can be appropriate to speak of fasting from other things besides food—such as your phone, TV, etc.— technically, the Bible uses the term only in reference to abstinence from food.
In chapter three of my Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (NavPress, 2014), I describe nine different types of biblical fasts, such as regular, occasional, congregational, etc. For purposes of this article, I’ll emphasize only two. The first is a “normal” fast, which involves abstaining from all food but not water or perhaps other liquids. This is probably the most common type of fast and is usually done privately and only occasionally.
Pastor, if you teach fasting to a congregation, many will be unable to engage in a normal fast. People will have medical reasons—such as migraines, diabetes, pregnancy, etc.—that prevent fasting. You should also be aware of a “partial” fast. This involves a limitation of the diet but not abstention from all food. If a person requires a balanced nutritional intake, he eats only the minimum necessary to prevent problems. Some can eat one simple food, such as plain bread or rice, as needed. Though we do not want to risk harm, those who choose a partial fast should still feel either some desire for more food or more pleasure from what they eat. Like hunger from a normal fast, this dissatisfaction with the food is essential, as we shall see.
“While it can be appropriate to speak of fasting from other things besides food—such as your phone, TV, etc.— technically, the Bible uses the term only in reference to abstinence from food.”
Scripture expects fasting
To those unfamiliar with the subject, the biggest surprise in this article for many is that fasting is a New Testament expectation for Christians. Notice Jesus’ words at the beginning of Mt 6:16-17: “And when you fast … But when you fast . . .” (emphasis added). By giving us instructions on what to do and what not to do when we fast (see the negative command, the positive command, and a promise in vv. 16-18), Jesus assumes that we will fast.
This is even clearer when we notice the context. In words just above His teaching on fasting, Jesus says, ”when you give . . . when you give” (vv. 2-3), and “when you pray . . . when you pray” (vv. 5-7). We often use these passages to teach about giving and prayer but somehow miss the parallelism about fasting.
Since nothing in Scripture indicates that we no longer need to fast, and since we know that Christians in the book of Acts fasted (see 9:9; 13:2; 14:23), we may conclude that Jesus still expects His followers to fast today.
Fasting for a biblical purpose
The most important concept from this article is this: have a biblical purpose for your fast. Without a clear biblical purpose, fasting becomes, at best, a mere test of endurance and, at worst, a vain attempt at works righteousness.
We must never attempt to impress God with how much we make ourselves suffer for His sake. God is impressed only with the suffering and righteousness of Christ. Then why fast? In one sense, we could ask that of all the spiritual disciplines. Like the other disciplines, fasting done biblically can be a means of sustaining (not saving) grace.
Remember that fasting is not a practice developed by pious people long ago. Fasting is God’s idea. There are unique blessings we can receive only through fasting. If the same blessings could be experienced through other means, there would be no place for fasting in the Christian life.
So here’s what fasting looks like without a biblical purpose: your headaches, or your stomach growls, and you think, “I’m hungry! Oh, wait; I’m hungry because I’m fasting today.” If your next action is to look at the time, and your next thought is, “How long until this is over?” then you’re doing it wrong. There’s no biblical purpose in that. Your purpose is merely to endure it. And it’s probably just a miserable, self-centered experience.
With a biblical fast, whenever you realize that you are hungry and remember you are fasting, you remember the biblical purpose for your fast and act on it. For example, if your purpose is to pray for someone’s salvation, every time you get hungry, your hunger prompts you to pray for that person’s salvation.
This is why you want to feel hungry during a fast and why those on a partial fast need some sense of desire for more food or for something more pleasurable than bread to eat. Your hunger isn’t just something to endure. It serves your biblical purpose. It is your reminder to pursue what you hunger for right now, even more than food.
“There are unique blessings we can receive only through fasting. If the same blessings could be experienced through other means, there would be no place for fasting in the Christian life.”
Examples of biblical purposes for fasting
In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, I summarize 10 purposes for fasting found in Scripture. I can’t mention or describe them all here. Still, they include fasting to seek God’s guidance, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance, to express concern for the work of God and to seek His blessing upon it, to minister to the needs of others, to express love and worship to God, and more.
The most common one seems to be—and in one sense relates to them all—to strengthen prayer for something specific. On these occasions, prayer serves as an intensifier of our spiritual desires. As mentioned above, during such a fast, every awareness of hunger is a prompt to pray for that which you want God to do even more than you want food for that day.
So fasting must always have a biblical purpose—a God-centered purpose, not a self-centered one.
The sure reward of biblical fasting
God has often crowned fasting with extraordinary blessings. Biblical, historical, and contemporary testimonies bear witness to God’s delight in providing unusual blessings to those who fast. But we should be careful not to develop a mechanical view of fasting, believing that God is obligated to give us what we ask. We cannot manipulate God to do our bidding by fasting any more than we can by any other means.
As with prayer, we fast in the hope that by His grace, God will bless us with what we desire. Whether He does or not, when our fast is rightly motivated, we can be sure God will bless our fast. Jesus promised in His teaching on fasting, “He who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt. 7:18). And He will do so in the way His infinite wisdom knows is best.
