05/08/2026
One thing about fasting is this:
The very day you decide to fast, you may suddenly receive free food, get invited to an event where food is difficult to refuse, find your favorite meal available, or experience unusual hunger.
Yet, on a normal day, these things may not happen. Sometimes you're even too busy to eat or forget to eat, and you're perfectly fine.
If your health condition does not permit fasting, please don't force yourself. You can still devote yourself to prayer. However, if your faith and your medical condition allow it, you may choose to fast with wisdom.
For those who have been looking for excuses not to fast, you can break that barrier today. Try fasting until 12:00 noon—you won't die. Fasting does not remove hunger, tiredness, or weakness. The hunger you feel is the same thing everyone who fasts experiences. The difference is that we choose to endure it, and over time the body adjusts.
The discipline to refuse opportunities to eat and remain committed to your fast is an expression of faith and self-control.
At the same time, don't make your fasting obvious just to receive praise or special treatment from others. Jesus taught us to fast with sincerity before God.
Fasting should be accompanied by:
- Prayer
- Reading and meditating on God's Word
- Listening to sound biblical teaching or studying a biblical subject
- Showing mercy and kindness to others
- Living righteously by doing what is right, even when it is difficult
- Refusing sin, including lying, backbiting, lust, cursing, bitterness, and fighting
Remember, fasting is not just abstaining from food—it is drawing closer to God with a humble and obedient heart.
