Why I Fast and Why You Should Too

Let's be honest. Fasting is hard. It's hard when we have routines of eating at certain times or certain places. It's hard to watch other people eat and know that you're choosing to not eat. It's hard to experience hunger. So why should I fast? Why should everyone fast? Why put ourselves through physical and mental suffering?

Today I want to tell you why I fast and share with you the spiritual and physical benefits of fasting and ultimately help you answer the question "why should I fast".

What is a fast?

There are many different types of fasts. Some coming from the Bible, some encouraged by the church, some for purely heath reasons. Here are a few examples:

• The one-hour fast before mass, where we should only drink water (and take medicine, if necessary)
• Abstaining from eating meat during the Fridays of Lent
• Choosing to give up a certain food or habit during the 40 days of Lent
• Abstaining from a certain food or habit during all Fridays of the year
• Intermittent fasting - eating only during certain hours of the day or certain days of the week
• Bread and Water Fasts - consuming nothing but bread and water for a given time period
• Complete Fasts - only drinking water for a given time period

The list could go on. While there are many examples of fasting, it can generally be defined as willingly abstaining from or reducing consumption of food and/or drink for a certain period of time.

Why should I fast?

There are lots of reasons to fast. Fasting can bring intention to your eating, focus on our Lord, and improved health. Below I outline my top 5 reasons to fast.

1. Jesus Fasted

Throughout His life, as documented in the Bible, Jesus fasted. He fasted for 40 days during which He was tempted by the devil. He abstained completely from bread and water during this time.

During His temptation, Jesus resists the devil saying "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3) In this statement, Jesus told us that fasting can give us strength as we learn to lean on God and not on that of this world. We don't need food as much as we need God. How powerful. And we can remind ourselves of this through a regular practice of fasting.

2. Jesus Told Us To Fast

Though not explicitly stated in the Bible, Jesus wanted us to fast.

First, He called us to be imitators of Him. In that, we are to do what He did. Because Jesus often fasted, we too should fast often.

Second, when Jesus instructs his disciples on fasting he begins with the phrase "When you fast…" (Matthew 6:16). Note that He did not say "if". He didn't give us a choice. He said "when", implying that each of us will fast.

Third, Jesus took the time to teach us best practices for fasting (see the rest of Matthew 6:16-18 here). Jesus wouldn't waist His precious time telling us how to fast if He didn't think it was important.

3. To Experience Hunger and Fullness

When was the last time you felt hungry? Like stomach-empty hunger. It doesn't happen very often in our culture where food is available in almost every building or around every corner. You may wonder why you would even want to experience true hunger. Why would I want to be hungry if I could be full?

I think of hunger and fullness on a scale, say 1-10. One end is hunger (1) and the other is fullness (10). If we constantly stay on the fullness end, our senses will become dulled. We may eat until we experience a 9 on the scale -close to completely full. But soon a 9 doesn't feel like a 9. It only feels like a 7. So we eat more, until we feel like a 9 again. But that's really an 11. And soon it's 13. And so on.

Hunger keeps us on the 1-10 scale. When we remember what 1 feels like, it makes us much more satisfied when we get to a 9. And when we do reach the beginning of satisfaction, we won't feel the need to continue looking for further gratification.

4. To Improve Digestion and Gut Health

Gut health is so important - bloating, gas, upset stomach, constipation, heartburn, reflux, and so many other common symptoms all stem from the gut. One of the best things we can do for our digestive system is to give it a break.

Imagine trying to put gas in your car while you are driving. It wouldn't work too well. It's the same with our bodies. Our bodies do their "driving" at night - they use the time when we're sleeping to repair and restore our systems to function at the highest level. If we're trying to shove food (aka "gas") in our bodies while our bodies are "driving", our bodies will be so focused on digesting the food that they'll forget to do all the repairing.

By fasting, whether for one day a week or for some hours each day, we give our bodies a chance to repair themselves and completely focus on gut health and healing.

5. As an Exercise of Willpower and Personal Discipline

It's really easy to eat whatever we want or do whatever we want just because we can. God isn't calling us to do that. He calls us to practice discipline regularly. Just look up all the Proverbs on discipline-there are so many! That's God's way of sending us a message.

When we exercise our willpower to keep ourselves disciplined we are able to grow in our faith and become closer to God. These daily (or weekly) practices lead us towards Him. And that's the goal!

How do I fast?

Now that we've gone through reasons why fasting is good (and, I'd argue, necessary), let's get practical and talk about what a regular fasting practice looks like.

Personally, I choose to engage in intermittent fasting daily. I eat during an 8 hour window and fast for the other 16 hours each day. I like this method because it allows me to feel hunger and fullness each day without worrying about over- or under-feeding myself.

You can do something similar. OR you can do what works for you.

As I detailed above there are many ways to fast. You can fast for 12 hours and eat for 12 hours. You can do a 24 hour fast once a week. You can simply fast from a certain food (like no dessert on Fridays).

The key to fasting is finding something that you can stick with. This takes personal discipline (see #5 above). But that's the point. Fasting isn't meant to be easy 100% of the time. Certainly, as you begin a regular fasting practice, it will get easier. But it won't start out that way. As you begin your fasting journey you'll give yourself the opportunity to imitate Jesus, grow in self-discipline, and improve your health. These are the goals to strive for and the ultimate purpose of fasting.