How to Fast As a Christian Guide
Most of the content of this “How to Fast as a Christian Guide” refers to the short fast, the 24 hours, or the shorter fast.
Welcome to my blog, my name is Leroy Daley. On this website, I utilize scriptures to explain scriptures.
Here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept.
Precept must be on precept or else we will have confusion and we don’t want any more confusion in Christianity, caused by misinterpreting the scriptures.
Let’s Explore How to Fast as a Christian!
So let us explore how to fast as a Christian. There are many fasting paradigms out there these days.
People are fasting to lose weight and they are imposing their own opinions on the Christian fast but the Bible is our sole authority for the Christian fast.
How we fast is not for us to decide, it’s either we are going to abide by what the Bible says or we are not.
So, are we going to fast according to the Bible or are we going to fast according to someone’s opinion?
Today, I want to explore how to fast according to the scriptures. I’m going to itemize ten (10) steps that we utilize as we execute our fast.
Step 1 – Determine the Objective of Your Fast
First, we need to decide on the goal of our fasting. Why are we fasting? What is the objective of the fast?
What do we wish to achieve through our fasting?
A fast can have many goals.
But a very successful Christian fast usually has one defined goal, which keeps us focused on the thing we are trying to accomplish during the fast.
Step 2 – Establish the Length of Your Fast
The second step is to decide on the length of our fast.
The scripture is very lenient in this regard. It does not impose any time frame on us. We can decide on how long we’re going to fast.
Is it going to be for a few hours? Are we going to fast for 24 hours? Are we going to fast for three days? Are we going to fast overnight?
Whatever your need is, you need to decide, before you commence your fasting, how long you are going to fast and stick with that decision.
So, if you’re going to fast from sunrise to sunset, stick with it, establish it before you commence the fast.
Step 3 – Remove Distractions
The next step is to remove all distractions, turn off your cell phone, turn off the radio, turn off the TV.
You should probably go into a room. Whatever you can do to minimize distractions will help you in your fasting.
It will keep you focused on your task at hand and those usually require that you not helter-skelter, but focus on what you’re going to do.
You’re going to fast so you’re going to pray, you’re going to spend time with the Lord, seeking the Lord in prayer, reading your scriptures.
Removing distractions will assist us to give ourselves to fasting and prayer as Apostle Paul said in (1 Corinthians 7:5).
That’s one of the ways we accomplish this, by removing distractions.
Step 4 – Start Your Fast
The next step is to start the fast. At this time, I think I could define what I consider a fast, or what the scripture defines a fast as.
What is a Christian Fast?
This will be in my own words, but a fast really is a specified duration of time during which we abstain from foods, drinks, sexual intimacy, and we focus on afflicting the soul and seeking God through prayer, reading our scriptures, for a specific objective, a specific goal. That’s what I consider to be a fast.
In concept, the scripture will bear me out on that. So I can’t understand how during a fast you can be eating and drinking.
We can’t be doing anything like that during the fast, the biblical fast, because it’s a time when we don’t eat or drink anything.
So how can you be fasting and you’re drinking water or you’re drinking juice? That’s crazy! That’s not a fast, according to the Bible.
So, no food; no drink; no sex, and we afflict our soul for a fixed duration, and during that time we seek god’s guidance for a particular objective, a particular purpose.
Queen Esther and the Biblical Fast
One of the famous scriptures in the Bible was when Queen Esther decided that she was going to do a three-day three-night fast.
Israel was at a point of near destruction, so she called a three-day fast and she had a specific purpose in mind. It was a purposeful fast.
Not even the queen could approach the king if the king didn’t request her. So when she approached the king, if he held out his golden scepter to her, she would live and she could approach.
If he didn’t, she would die. So in order to gain his favor and the favor of the Lord, Esther called a three-days fast. We find that in (Esther 4:16).
Features of the Christian Fast
So a fast usually has one well-defined goal. It keeps us focused on our tasks during the fast. Its focus is to achieve that specific goal. That’s what we pray about, that’s what we seek god for, whatever that goal is, it’s very powerful.
Step 5 – Read Your Bible & Pray
What two things do Christians do while they fast? Do they exercise and drink water?
Do they take walks and meditate or do they pray and read their Bible? They always pray and read their Bible.
Yep, those are two things that Christians do when they fast. Could we fast and go to work?
Of course, we could. Where we fast is only important to the extent that it helps us to afflict our souls, and give ourselves to fasting and prayer to achieve our fasting goal.
Step 6 – Afflict Your Soul
Many Christians when they fast, they take walks and they want to bond with nature. Some of them would, you know, go into the mountains.
Some, sit by the seaside and others go into the forest. That’s okay. Nothing is wrong with that.
But as long as your fasting is achieving its goal, as long as you’re able to achieve your goal during the fast it’s perfectly okay. Because the scripture is not hard and fast on these things.
Jesus when he was fasting, went into the desert to avoid distraction and to focus on the task of fasting, so we could emulate him in this regard.
Step 7 – Memorize a Scripture
During the fast, it’s important that we always find time to read our Bible, meditate on the Word, pray, and it’s also a good time to memorize scripture.
Many Christians don’t memorize scripture you know, but memorizing scripture is very powerful.
It removes the words from the Bible pages and rewrites them on our hearts.
So we have the Word of God on demand. When we need it we can access it, but, if we don’t have the Word within us, we can’t retrieve it.
So while we’re fasting, that’s a good time to memorize a scripture.
Because a Believer whose heart is replete with the Word of God is a formidable foe of Satan. He or she is powerful!
Step 8 – Break the Fast
The next step is to break the fast. How do you break the fast? Before I break my fast I would spend some time reading the scripture again and I would spend some time praying and then I would break the fast.
Now, to break the fast all you need to do is to eat or drink something and that breaks the fast. Whatever you eat or drink breaks that fast.
I’m Jamaican, to break my fast when I was back home, I would eat a few joints of sugarcane, but you could eat a slice of melon, eat an orange, a mango, or have a glass of water.
Many Christians I know, break their fasting by having a warm cup of tea, mint tea, whatever tea you like you could have.
There are many different ways to break your fast but the important thing is, even though it’s a short fast, you avoid foods that are very harsh on the stomach and that should be fine.
Step 9 – How to Eat After the Fast?
Now after the fast, many people get into problems because of what they do immediately after the fast. They started to eat and eat too much.
So, eat small portions and eat slowly. This could prevent you from ingesting a lot of air into your stomach.
And if you’re drinking, drink slowly, and drink small amounts but drink frequently, you don’t have to drink a whole lot all at once.
Step 10 – Never Do This While Fasting!
There’s something important I want to say to people who go on biblical fasting where you don’t eat or drink anything.
Remember to avoid direct face-to-face contact with people because your breath would have been foul by then.
So you don’t want to talk into people’s faces, it’s not a pleasant thing. They might not say anything but your breath would you know, not be pleasant.
Watch Out For This as You Fast
On that note too, avoid eating gums and candies or sweets while you’re fasting. Many Christians, I know, while they’re fasting, to prevent this foul breath from you know, embarrassing them, they would chew on gums.
That’s not good. It’s not good for your stomach because you are tricking your stomach to believe that you have eaten.
Then your stomach will secrete gastric juice to digest the food and that will hurt your stomach.
Moreover, by eating candies and sweets and stuff you’re breaking the fast. So avoid doing that.
Conclusion
This is how I do a fast. I establish the time for the fast, I set up my fasting goal, I remove distractions, then I enter into the fast.
During the fast, I will be praying.
If you go to work you could still pray, you don’t even have to say a word, you could be working and praying.
Many times I’m at work and I’m fasting and nobody knows.
Could You Fast and Go to Work?
I’m working and I’m praying. I’m there but my mind is not there, I’m just working, but I’m praying and if I get some time I’ll go to the restroom or go somewhere and I’ll pray.
In closing, you could do the same thing. But remember a fast is to afflict your soul.
It’s a day to the Lord, it’s a time when you avoid food and drinks and you’re devoted to achieving a specific goal as you seek God’s guidance in that situation.
That’s all for today guys. Thank you for stopping by.
