Fasting Well – What Jesus and the Bible Teach About Fasting

The Sermon on the Mount – Fasting

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites [do,] for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

Principles: Do not do it TO be noticed by people. Do it to be noticed by your Father – who sees what is done in secret – and He will reward you. Is it wrong to call a fast and say you are fasting? No.

Jesus said it and did it and people knew, His followers did it and people knew. But it is the heart of it: Why do you do it? To be seen as a spiritual, holy, better than others, person in the eyes of yourself and people? Is it to elevate yourself above others? No.

The same principle goes for praying and giving (Matthew 6:1-15).

Why do the disciples of Jesus not fast – and what is another purpose of fasting?

Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. “Nor do [people] put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus wants to pour new wine out by His Spirit in us. New wine has to go into new wineskins that are fresh and flexible enough to expand as the new wine expands.

If the new wine goes into old stiff inflexible wineskins – both the beautiful wine will be spilled and the skins will break.

FASTING is an important way, now that Jesus is not here in the flesh to strongly correct and rebuke us, and physically love on us and stretch us, and show us how things are done, to keep us humble – fasting now will keep our own wineskin – flexible – to contain the new wine.

So – fasting stretches us and if done right – it humbles us to personal repentance – it turns our heart to the softness and the discipline of the Father – and it turns our old wineskin into new fresh, humble, repentant, obedient, and flexible wineskin.

That is what God can use and pour His fresh wine of the Holy Spirit into.

Fasting in the early church and in Isaiah

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

Acts 13:1-3

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ’Why have we fasted,’ they say, ’and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:1-11

So – you cannot fast – and at the same time live in sin, in injustice toward your employees and colleagues, and NOT also give to the poor and needy and help people and lift people up. You cannot fast – and quarrel and be violent. Fasting, prayer, and giving – must go hand in hand with acts of justice, helping the poor, setting people free. It’s not either – or – it’s both.