Fasting is about choosing to go without something that would otherwise satisfy an appetite or bring comfort. It can be different things for different people and take place in different times and for different lengths of time. Sometimes just for a day – or maybe a week or longer. Here are some of the ways people have told me that they fast. Some do various combinations. Ask the Lord to speak to you about what would be good for you to fast:

The bible encourages us to fast but is not prescriptive about how we should do it nor indeed what it is. People fast in different ways and for different reasons. Here is one of the reasons I fast. 

The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. 

Comfort, comfort my people says your God. 

So when I fast, I am looking squarely at one (or more) of these false comforters and saying, you shall not bring me comfort. And to prove it I go without for a period. It may be a meal or several meals; it may be alcohol or Twitter. 

Let’s have some of that

Oh no you don’t”. 

It was a disconcerting pleasure being drawn into the body-thon that was the 2012 Olympics. In fact, cynicism in the run-up was transformed into celebration during. Millions of us watched these other-worldly beings persuade their minds and bodies into extra-ordinary feats of skill, strength and endurance. And that is before we have seen what the disabled athletes can do! We, the British, have just about allowed ourselves to revel in competitive success for a few weeks – with a little more gloating than our culture usually permits. 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

When I fast I am foregoing a pleasure in order to discipline my mind and body so that when the pain comes I can run the race, see it through. The gold of the Kingdom is tarnished when we don’t hear or see or run well – so fasting prepares us to do the Kingdom stuff and go for gold.

I have been reading recently about the way Jesus was challenged about fasting. He started his ministry with a 40-day fast. And then the way He lived his life implied that He pursued devotional disciplines that would undoubtedly have included fasting. 

They said to him, “John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking”. 

Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 

He told them this parable: “No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no-one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no-one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'” 

That is why we fastandpray. Things just aren’t as they should be. We fast in order to remember that our lives are broken and our world is broken. And we pray in order to invite God’s presence more and more into our lives and into our world. 

Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”.  John 14:13,14. 

The Good and Beautiful God

So when I fast I am not seeking to earn God’s favour and get answers to my prayers but I am seeking to learn His ways and thus discover how to pray. Praying not pleading. Learning not earning. 

The first temptation Jesus faced was to his appetite – understandably, he had fasted for 40 days and was, says Luke (4:2), “hungry”! I’ll bet he was. 

So along comes the devil, the tricky tempter, and says, “You must be starving! Do a little miracle and make yourself a sandwich.” 

That’s what the enemy does: the last thing he wants is for me to experience the sustenance that comes from knowing God loves me, so he tempts me, entices me, solicits me away from God by reminding me of my appetites.  

Now appetites often look normal and natural and harmless. But sometimes I say “Yes” to an appetite which is at best unnecessary and at worst damaging. And when I succumb to that temptation I am one step closer to the appetite becoming an addiction, one step closer to drowning out the gentle invitation to know my creator God. 

Jesus’ riposte to the temptation – at a time of desperate need – was the famous epigram, “Man does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). “Yes I am hungry and thirsty and I would love a … (fill in the blank) but that isn’t enough to keep me fully alive. I need much, much more. I need to be free of those craven appetites because they get between me and God.” 

I might be able to get a fleeting high or sidestep a low or briefly quench a thirst or blunt life’s sharp corners - but that thin covering soon evaporates and needs me more exposed, wanting more. 

So I fast – for an adequately demanding period I deny myself something for which I have an appetite but without which I can survive (alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, food, sex). And as I deal with an appetite over which I have some measure of control I find that the Holy Spirit partners with me in conquering appetites which would take a stronger grip on me. 

If you find your life is controlled by appetite then I suggest you try fasting something which you can deal with and ask the Holy Spirit to help you conquer every appetite that stops you from freely enjoying the abundant life God has given you.