BACKGROUND
Fasting has been practiced as a means of aiding spiritual focus by virtually everyone, inside of Scripture and out, who had any degree of spiritual maturity. The same is true for almost all other religions. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that fasting is essential to spiritual growth.
Fasting, like everything else, must be God-centered and God-ordained. Its first purpose is to glorify God. After that, though, there are a number of other purposes to keep in mind: (i) fasting, more than any other discipline, starkly reveals the things that control us (not only physical drives, but pride, anger, impatience, and so on); (ii) fasting reminds us that we are sustained not by food, but by the word of God; (iii) fasting helps us to keep balance in our lives, helping us to keep nonessential things from taking control of our lives.
The simplest kind of fast to begin with is a 2-meal fast (e.g., fast from breakfast to breakfast, skipping lunch and dinner). After that, the next step is a real, 24-hour fast (i.e., fast from dinner on Monday until breakfast on Wednesday, skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Tuesday). For longer fasts, see Foster. The nature of the fast varies.
Obviously, we must abide by Jesus’ counsel to refrain from calling attention to our fasts.
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7/12/97