What is fasting, and does it belong with prayer?
Fasting is the deliberate giving up of food, usually for a season, in order to devote ourselves to God. Scripture shows it joined to prayer, humility, and seeking the Lord, and Jesus assumed His followers would fast even as He assumed they would pray and give. Fasting is not a way to earn favor or twist God's arm; it is a discipline of dependence, an expression of hunger for God Himself, that belongs naturally with prayer.
This question arose from studying How do I pray? and What does the Lord's Prayer teach?.
Begin by reading
Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Fasting is giving up food to give ourselves to God
Fasting is not dieting or penance; it is the deliberate setting aside of food for a time to seek God. Jesus spoke of it as a normal part of devotion, 'when you fast,' alongside when you pray and when you give, and He taught it to be done before the Father in secret, not to impress people. Paul and the earliest church fasted while they worshiped and prayed. It is a way of turning our natural hunger toward God.
“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
It belongs with prayer and seeking the Lord
In Scripture, fasting is rarely alone; it is joined to prayer, humility, and seeking. The church in Antioch 'served the Lord and fasted' when the Spirit spoke, and 'had fasted and prayed' when they sent out Barnabas and Saul. Elders were appointed 'with prayer and fasting.' Moses and Elijah fasted on the mountain as they drew near to God. Fasting empties us of distraction that we might be full of God, and so it pairs naturally with prayer.
As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.
When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
It is a sign of our dependence and hunger for God
When we fast, we are saying with our bodies what we believe with our hearts: that we need God more than we need bread. Moses said of Israel in the wilderness, God humbled you and let you hunger 'that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.' Jesus, fasting in the wilderness, answered the tempter with exactly these words. Fasting is the discipline of living by every word of God.
He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
It must be more than outward abstaining
God's word through Isaiah rebukes a fasting that is merely a ritual of self-denial while hearts remain hard: the people ask why God does not notice their fasting, yet in it they still oppress and quarrel. The fast God chooses is one that loosens the bonds of wickedness, feeds the hungry, shelters the poor, and covers the naked. Fasting that does not lead to love is hollow; the discipline of self-denial is meant to make us more like the self-giving God.
‘Why have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
It is for emphatic seasons and for the ordinary walk
Jesus said that His disciples would fast 'in those days' after the Bridegroom was taken away, marking life in this present age as a time for such dependence. Fasting may be for special seasons of seeking, for confession, for major decisions, or for the church's united prayer, and it is joined to humility of heart. Like all disciplines, it is not a way to earn God's favor but a way to receive more of Him, and it is never a substitute for love.
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.”
“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.”
Worth visiting