What is fasting ?

Many of us, regardless of our beliefs or religious convictions, fast from time to time for various reasons.

However, within Christian circles, this subject is sometimes surrounded by misunderstandings and even debates about whether or not it is still relevant.

Let’s take a deeper look at the issue.

Fasting in the Common Understanding

In the common understanding, fasting is often seen by many Christians as a time when we refrain (mainly) from eating in order to seek God in prayer, with the goal of obtaining an answer to a request.

In short, if I want God to answer one of my wishes or requests, I give up food for a certain number of days or during specific hours, hoping to receive a favorable response from God and see the situation I’m facing turn around.

But in reality, what is it truly?

More concretely — what is it? And what does it actually bring you?

What Fasting Truly Is

True fasting is a voluntary and temporary setting apart, in which a person chooses to abstain from food and/or certain legitimate pleasures in order to pursue deeper communion with God.

It is not merely stopping eating.

It is voluntarily reducing certain natural satisfactions in order to increase spiritual attentiveness.

To fast is to intentionally create space for God.

The heart of fasting is intimacy: more prayer, more listening, more dependence.

Why Include the Denial of Pleasures?

Fasting can involve food, distractions, social media, entertainment, or certain comfortable habits.

It means temporarily giving up something legitimate — not because it is bad — but in order to focus more intentionally on God.

The deprivation is not the goal.
It is a means of refocusing the heart.

What Fasting Produces in Us

As we connect more deeply with God:

• we become more sensitive to His voice
• we receive His instructions with greater clarity
• we better understand His will

And it is from this listening followed by obedience (obedience to His Word, but also — and especially — to His voice; see more details here) that answers to prayer emerge.

It is not hunger that produces the miracle.

It is intimacy that aligns our hearts with His will.

Fasting does not manipulate God.
It aligns us with Him.

However, it is important to emphasize something here:

Some answers to prayer are tied to God’s sovereign agenda, His timing, and His perfect will.

They do not depend on the number of days fasted or the length of the fast.

God does not act because we have “fasted enough.”

He acts according to His wisdom and sovereignty.

The Right Posture

When we fast, let us do so out of personal conviction, out of love for God, and with the desire to know Him more deeply.

The goal is not to obtain something.
The goal is to know Someone.

I like to say that there are two types of fasts if we look at what initiates them:

• Corporate fasts — those initiated by our leader or pastor.
• Personal fasts — those our spirit is led to undertake individually.

Both categories are equally important.

God has entrusted specific groups of people to spiritual leaders to guide and shepherd; they are the shepherds of those communities.

God may choose to address certain matters with you collectively and others individually. But believe me — the two processes complement each other.

The Different Forms of Fasting

• Total fast / Dry fast
No food (sometimes no water, but only for a very short period).
Rare and exceptional.

• “Normal” fast
No food, but water is allowed.

• Partial fast
Restricting certain foods (for example, a simple diet similar to Daniel’s fast).

• Intermittent spiritual fast
Fasting during specific time frames (for example, from sunrise to sunset).

• Abstinence fast
Temporarily giving up certain pleasures or distractions (screens, entertainment, media, etc.) in order to devote more time to prayer and meditation.

Good to Know

A fast is authentic when it includes:

• A clear spiritual intention
• Increased time in prayer
• A sincere pursuit of God
• A desire for alignment and obedience

Without these, it is merely physical deprivation.

May God bless you and strengthen you in the face of every challenge and every situation that feels draining right now.

We’re in this together.

SBE