The act of fasting or giving something up for Lent has been a common Christian practice for centuries. But it turns out there are a lot of misconceptions and mis-practices when it comes to fasting faithfully. So let’s start by discussing some common notions of fasting. Lots of times when we think about fasting, at least from a pop culture perspective, we think about dieting… restricting our eating with the goal of changing some physical characteristic about ourselves. It’s shocking how much the diet industry has blown up over the past two decades, and we could easily spend this whole post talking about the harm diet culture can have on people’s bodies and self-esteem. But for now, let’s skip over all that and simply say there is a very important difference between diet fasting and spiritual fasting. Without spiritual direction or purpose, it’s not Christian fasting; it’s just deprivation. So, the type of fasting we do during Lent should prepare us not for a procedure or for some health goal, but for deeper connection with God.

Fortunately, the Bible has a lot to say on the matter, with upwards of 70 references to fasting. Let’s see what a few of them have to teach us:

Matthew 6:16-18

When fasting, don’t look all sad and grumpy so others can tell you’re fasting, but put a smile on your face

Based on what we learn about fasting from these passages, it’s starting to look like biblical fasting entails the following: Fasting—very simply—is a spiritual practice that helps redirect our attention and our affection toward God. That’s it. It’s easy to fall into this idea that fasting is about deprivation for deprivation’s sake… that somehow unwavering piety or religious obedience is what God wants of us. But God doesn’t want your deprivation; God wants your attention and your affection. So fasting isn’t about depriving ourselves and seeing how long we can last; it’s not about passing some test to see how far we’re willing to go; it’s not about showing people what we’re willing to do for our faith. It’s about realigning our priorities to place God at the center of our attention and our desire. And there are lots of ways we can do that faithfully. We can either 1) remove something from our lives that steals our attention and affection from God, or 2) we can add something to our daily routine that helps focus our attention and affection on God. That leads us to two important points.

“Fasting—very simply—is a spiritual practice that helps redirect our attention and our affection toward God.”

First, when it comes to fasting, success isn’t measured by how capable you are of not breaking the fast; success is measured by the amount of affection and attention redirected toward God. Simply trying your best for the right reasons is pleasing enough to God. Second, it’s important to consider how our fasts will affect others. A really common misunderstanding about spiritual fasting is that we must try to keep the fast at all costs, no matter the circumstances. But good fasting mingles horizontal concern (i.e. thinking about your relationships here on earth) with vertical concern (i.e. thinking about your relationship with God). Let’s get into an example here…

Let’s say you decide you’re going to fast from going to restaurants for Lent. So you stop eating out, and you bring your lunch to school or work, and you stop going through the Starbucks drive-through. But a friend calls and says, “Hey… are we still on for our monthly lunch date at McAlister’s tomorrow?” What do you say? You say, “Yes, I’ll see you there.” Because God doesn’t want your blind obedience to some religious goal you set for yourself; God wants you to love God and the people around you. In other words, sometimes the more faithful way to keep a fast is to break it.

“Sometimes the more faithful way to keep a fast is to break it.”

So here’s your question for this season: What distracts you from giving God more of your time and more of your heart? If it’s food, change how you interact with food. If it’s your phone, change how you interact with your phone. If it’s a busy schedule or negative encounters at work or school, try to change things up and create more room in your life for the people and experiences that matter to you. Whatever fast you choose, don’t let it be oppressive, and don’t feel guilty if you aren’t perfect at it. Just let it be something that helps focus more of your attention and your affection on God this Lent. Because there’s a story about a man named Jesus and his cross headed our way. And that story deserves our full attention, our full affection.

Biblical Fasting for Lent

“Sometimes the more faithful way to keep a fast is to break it.”

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