Fasting

What is fasting?

     There were times under the Old Testament era when God's people got away from His will. When they desired to return back to God, it was often accompanied by fasting. The idea of fasting was to demonstrate the concern one had over some given issue. We often read of those who did "sackcloth and ashes" as a similar demonstration of the concern that people had. Two more cases in the Old Testament are Hannah and Ahab. Hannah, because she could not have a child, cried and did not eat (1 Samuel 1:7). While the case with Ahab was because he could not get Naboth to sell him his vineyard, resorted to pouting and would not eat bread (1 Kings 21:4).

     We know, that following His baptism, Jesus was in the wilderness and fasted for 40 days and nights. We find, then, in this setting, an individual doing the fasting. When it came time to send out Barnabas and Saul on the first journey to expand the gospel, some brethren in the church were fasting (Acts 13:2). It was then that the Holy Spirit told those present about the work that He was calling Barnabas and Saul to do. We must make, at this point, a distinction. The distinction is that individuals fasted, but a record of the entire church being called upon to fast is unclear.

     The fasting done by individuals was regulated by the Lord. The individual was not to fast with a sad countenance (Matthew 6:16). The individual was not to fast with a sad countenance (Matthew 6:16). The hypocrites that Jesus faced wanted everyone to "know" they were fasting. Jesus told His audience to wash their faces and anoint their heads. What was the reason here? He did not want them to appear to men to fast, but rather to fast in secret (verse 18). Fasting, then, is a private issue between an individual and God. It is not to be used as some kind of "badge" of righteousness. We fast to show our concern to God about some issue on our hearts.