Fasting for Intimacy

Fasting doesn't just mean not eating. That's dieting. And we can fast things other than food. Fasting is giving up something so that the time we would have spent on that thing we instead spend with God. It's a tangible way of putting God first. And God usually shows up in a more intimate way than we've yet experienced.

I think we should fast regularly. Fasting food is a fantastic experience – the time you would have spent preparing the food and eating is instead spent with the Lord. There's no better way to put your flesh down than deny it food. (NOTE: Do not fast food if you're diabetic, anorexic, are under 18, or have some other medical condition where skipping food would be bad. (“Hey, being under 18's not a medical condition!” Yes it is – just go ask your parents. :) )

But there are lots of things you can fast besides food. Fasting TV/media is excellent – most of it isn't good for us anyway. Time at the gym. Time doing whatever hobby. Basically anything about which your heart says, “oh, no not that.” You're not giving it up permanently, just giving the time over to the Lord for a pre-determined timeframe.

As a software engineer who does research, if I'm hungry I can't think straight, which is what I get paid for. So I can't fast food during the work week. But for some reason, I can fast sleep. I commute 1 – 2 hours one-way depending on traffic, so I get up at “oh-dark-thirty” to spend time with the Lord. Then drink lots of coffee at work. So I get 6 hours (or less) sleep each night and catch up on the weekends. Not a healthy lifestyle, but that's the season God has me in right now. I'm not patting myself on the back; this is just a personal example of a fasted lifestyle. And I can tell you it's totally worth it.

It's important for your Christian walk to fast something on a regular basis. I highly recommend a fasted lifestyle. It will greatly increase your intimacy with the Father.