Why Should I Fast?

Fasting provides both physical and spiritual benefits.

Numerous studies have concluded that periodic days of fasting can accomplish the following:

• Cleanse our bodies of impurities.
• Rest the digestive system.
• Make us healthier people.

But the greatest benefit is spiritual.

When we fast:

• We turn from our bodies to our souls, from what we can see and feel to what we believe, from ourselves to God.
• We learn to magnify God, to be grateful for the food he gives us, for our bodies, our breath, and our lives, and to focus on him in gratitude and worship.
• We see what controls us. Often, we cover up the turmoil and pain of daily life with food. But, through fasting, things like greed, pride, resentment, etc. are revealed.
• We find spiritual conviction rise to the surface. Fasting uncovers hidden sins and attitudes. David writes, “When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach” (Psalm 69:10).
• We can fast to beseech God, to demonstrate mourning, or to offer a time of radical repentance, as in Esther 4:16, Nehemiah 1:4, Joel 2:12, and Daniel 9:3.
• We are reminded that our true sustenance is by “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). When the disciples brought food to Jesus, thinking he was hungry, he said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about. . . . My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:32, 34). Jesus was actually being nourished by the power of God.

If Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Paul, and even our Lord Jesus fasted to defeat the Enemy, win spiritual victory, and magnify God, what of us?

Your body—and moreover your soul—will uniquely benefit from this often-neglected discipline.