How Does God View Fasting?

(My husband preached a message last year on fasting, and here are some thoughts from that message.)

 

As we reflect at this time of year on the importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection for all of us, it is common for there to be much attention focused on the practice of fasting.  While it is an important subject, it is also a commonly misunderstood one.  I hope that these thoughts from Jason’s message will help my readers to understand even better how God views fasting.    

 

1.  Fasting is Biblical. 

 

Jesus taught it.  In fact, He never said, “If ye fast . . .”, but rather, “When ye fast.”  (Matt. 6:16)  Fasting is a way to show our desperation to God.  It is Biblical to fast when seeking God’s will in a particular situation or when praying over a very serious need.  Fasting shows God our earnestness in asking our request, and it demonstrates the high priority we place on God’s help over even our personal comfort.   David talked about seeking God “more than my necessary food.”  Fasting focuses our desires on the Lord and deliberately sets aside our natural hunger for physical comfort.  The suffering of fasting is not about showing God our righteousness, but about showing God our need and appealing to Him on that basis.   

 

2.  Fasting is never public. 

 

While it is common nowadays to announce these decisions to others, we are commanded just the opposite.  Jesus said, “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:  for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.  Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”  (Matthew 6:16)

 

Sometimes churches will ask members to consider fasting for a serious need that has arisen—maybe a child facing life-threatening surgery, or a missionary being persecuted in a Muslim country.  Church members make those decisions privately, though, and do not add their names to some list on the bulletin board or announce it to others.  In fact, when we fast, we are supposed to do our best to look like we’re not fasting!  We should not make it obvious to everyone that we are skipping lunch today or avoiding sugar for spiritual reasons.   Fasting is strictly between a Christian and God.

 

3. Fasting should not be reserved for just one season of the year. 

 

Our needs and desperate situations do not just occur before Easter, although that is when fasting tends to get the most publicity.  In fact, our entire lives are filled with desperate needs, which God often uses to shift our attention from the glitter of this world and onto Himself.  Christians ought to be fasting periodically throughout their entire lives, as the Holy Spirit leads them to. 

 

4.  Fasting is not about giving up sin. 

 

Jesus wants to free us from the bondage of sin permanently in our lives, through His power in our hearts.  Fasting from cigarettes or cursing for six weeks before Easter—and then resuming the habit on Easter Sunday, is a bitter irony.  Jesus conquered the power of death and the power of sin by rising from the dead.  If we have sins that Jesus has pointed out to us that He wants to remove from our lives, then surrender to His Holy Spirit is the answer—not a temporary "fast". 

 

5.  Fasting does not earn heaven.

 

The rewards that Jesus referred to in Matthew 6 were not about earning eternal life. Fasting does bring reward—answered prayer, healing of sick, direction in our lives, even rewards to be distributed in heaven to those who were already saved.  But making it to heaven itself is not one of the rewards of fasting. 

 

There are people in heaven who have never fasted.  The thief who died on the cross next to Jesus did not begin thinking spiritually until he was within a few short hours of death—and by then, he was nailed to a cross!  He trusted in Christ, and Jesus promised him, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:43).  That thief did not have time on this earth to fast, join a church, do good works, or give money to charity.  He simply trusted in Christ, and heaven was his home.   

 

The way to heaven is the same for you and me.  God did not adjust the terms of heaven for the thief on the cross just because he was confined by nails.  Trusting in Christ is truly the only way to heaven.  Jesus told his disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  (John 14:6)

 

Sadly, there are people who have fasted on this earth who are in torment today.  Hell is full of “good” people who will stand at the judgment and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?  and in thy name have cast out devils?  And in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:  depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  (Matthew 7:22 -23).  Why would Jesus call their good works “iniquity”?  Simply:  Because God views human righteousness as “filthy rags.”  (Isaiah 64:6).  Salvation is obtained, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy.”  (Titus 3:5).   

 

If you are concerned that you might not be going to heaven when you die, God makes the way clear:  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  (Romans 10:13).  Our sin can be forgiven only by “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  (John 1:29) 

 

Heaven is sinless.  To go there, our sin must be erased.  But we cannot erase our own sin with these futile and feeble attempts at righteousness—impressive works performed by sinful humans, plagued by sinful motives; human accomplishments marbled together with self-righteousness and pride and comparison and apathy toward our Righteous Creator. 

 

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”  (I John 1:7).  Have you stopped trusting in your own righteousness and asked Jesus to cleanse you from your sin?