📖 What is Fasting?

No food? No water? No phone? What is it?

May 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

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What is Fasting?

The Last Supper by Angelo de Fancesca

Fasting comes in many shapes and sizes:

Social media fasts
Sugar fasts
Technology fasts
The list goes on and on and on…

Today, I want to specifically focus on what fasting was to Jesus.

In that, I believe we can find the most helpful definition for us as His followers.

Jesus in the Wilderness

Jesus fasted.

This is best seen in His wilderness story recorded in Matthew 4v1-11; Mark 1v12-13; and Luke 4v1-13.

Jesus’ temptation is one of the most popular scenes from His life.

In this story, a recently baptized Jesus embarks on a 40 day fast where He abstains from food entirely.

During those 40 days, the devil appeared to Him, attempting to take advantage of His physical weakness by enticing Him to sin.

But Jesus never buckles; He resists the temptation and makes it out on the other side.

I believe it’s here that we learn everything we need to know about fasting.

The Strengthening of the Spirit

Fasting is the act of abstaining from food to weaken the flesh and submit to the Holy Spirit.

When the devil comes to Jesus, He tempts Him with three things:

Food
Authority
And pride

Desires our flesh twists to keep us from God (Galatians 5v15-21).

In fasting, Jesus demonstrates that His fleshly desires do not control Him; thus, He can submit to the Father’s will and resist temptation.

And that’s what fasting is.

It’s a means of spiritual growth, making us more dependent on God than on our bodily appetites.

Fasting is a means of spiritual growth.

Now, bodily impulses aren’t bad (Jesus Himself liked a good meal), but they aren’t our God, and things quickly get out of hand when we’re unable to control them.

Fasting keeps these desires under God’s will, purifying them and strengthening our connection to Him.

And the fact that fasting is spiritual is also important to emphasize.

If we fast for the sole reason of losing weight or showing off, then we might as well not fast at all.

Like all spiritual disciples, it’s the Holy Spirit, not the physical act itself, that accomplishes the growth.

So, that’s what fasting is - a means of weakening the flesh and increasing dependency on the Holy Spirit, most commonly via not eating.

Fasting, however, isn’t required for Jesus’ followers.

But, I’d argue, that’s no reason to neglect it.

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