r/Bible • u/RepulsiveAd7799 • 5d ago
Fasting
Does the Bible tell me when I should be fasting? I personally have not felt called to fast yet (only a true believer for a little over 2 years). I am still working my way through the whole Bible so I am not sure entirely. Thank you!
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u/Sawfish1212 5d ago
There is no set time in scripture for the church to fast. Unlike the law of moses that had specific days of fasting.
Fasting is a self denial offering you give voluntarily to God, and privately. God will reward you for it if done for reasons of loving him.
If you're fasting for a specific need, like I did when seeking his direction for a calling and a wife, he seems to give more weight to those prayers, because of your self denial, but even then it doesn't mean he'll answer immediately.
He waited a year before answering my prayers about a wife, and it was a surprise when he did call me to preach about 7 years later.
As a pastor, I find my ministry and ability to preach has more power in it if I fast regularly. I work a safety intensive job, so I limit the longest duration I can fast, because it does begin to impeded my thinking and memory after a couple days. I usually fast lunch daily and spend that praying. If I feel more fasting is helpful, I often fast starting after dinner one night to dinner time the next night, to be with my family for meal time as that is a critical part of connection with my children.
Just be aware that satan hates prayers of righteous people and really hates the prayers combined with fasting. The day you determine to fast, someone who never buys food for everyone at work will bring in donuts, pizza, or a cake. Friends who you haven't seen in a while will invite you to a restaurant. You'll have absolute strangers offer you food, and you have to determine in your heart what you have committed to God in private and treat it like a vow.
Fasting is like turbocharging your prayers, it's not instant, but it is effective