Fasting is – at its most basic – not eating food.

There’s no set time.

The most common fast is from waking until sundown, but there are examples in

Scripture of two day fasts, three day, seven day, twenty one day, and forty day fasts.

Fasting is not a command, so that’s up to you.

In both Scripture and in church history, we do see two different types of fasting: fasting as rhythm and as response.

Examples:

Rhythm - Leviticus 16:29-31

Response - 1 Samuel 31, Jonah 3, Esther 4

Both. A lot of people misread Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 about fasting; he’s not saying that fasting in community is wrong, but that fasting as virtue signaling is wrong. Scripture is full of examples of the people of God fasting together. In fact, in the OT, fasts were commanded for the entire community.

1. To offer ourselves to Jesus

2. To grow in holiness

3. To amplify our prayers

4. To stand with the poor

And most importantly, because Jesus and His disciples fasted. Jesus began his ministry with forty days of fasting in the wilderness, and through the gospels we see Jesus fasting and talking about fasting often. (Mt 4, 6:16-18, 9:14-15, 17:21, Mk 9:29, Lk 4, Acts 13:1-3)

As we go through this series together discussing The Cultivated Life, our goal is to grow together as a community in an abiding life with Jesus. Throughout this series we are discussing several spiritual disciplines that have been modeled by Jesus in scripture and practiced by Christians throughout church history. One of those practices being, fasting.

Fasting is a powerful and practical way for us to re-align our whole person with Christ, by denying our flesh and offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1). Practicing this discipline together as a church then is a way for us to consecrate our hearts and desires unto Jesus, and to offer Him the first fruits of our year.