Four spiritual purposes of fasting:
- To recognize our dependence on God. Fasting reminds us of our personal weaknesses and that we are totally dependent on God to even survive. It is a very powerful tool to remove our focus from ourselves and sharpen our focus on our personal need for God in every aspect of life. Fasting helped Daniel “set [his] face toward the Lord God.”
- To grow in humility. The reminder of our total dependence on God should help us become more deeply humble. Humility is built by realizing our own personal weaknesses, sins and deficiencies—and our need to rely on God to help us. David said he “humbled [himself] with fasting.”
- To gain strength against sin. When we are humble and recognize our dependence on God, we grow in spiritual strength against sin. Isaiah wrote that fasting can help us “loose the bonds of wickedness.” If we have a specific sin we are struggling with, setting aside time to fast about that problem can be a powerful tool to help us overcome it.
- Seeking God’s will. Fasting is helpful when we face a difficult trial or an important decision. Fasting helps sharpen our spiritual perception and wisdom. We should never fast thinking we can compel God to do our will. God wants fasting to draw us closer to Him so we can better understand His will for us and act upon the leading of His Holy Spirit working in us.
Based on the precedent of the Day of Atonement, a typical fast is for 24 hours, which is physically safe for most healthy people. There are a few biblical examples of people fasting for shorter periods of time, such as “until evening” (2 Samuel 1:11 12).
And as noted earlier with the fast of Moses, there are other examples of fasting for longer periods of time. However, we recommend you be cautious about fasting longer than 24 hours. When we dedicate a day to fasting, we have time to combine all four tools of growth into that day. It can be a day dedicated to extra prayer to make our needs known to God.
We should study God’s Word about whatever situation we are in and meditate on what we read. When we are fasting, we will not typically be occupied with our normal activities. So we can take that time to pray, study and meditate more.
