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The goal of fasting is to draw nearer to God. It hits the reset button of our soul and renews us from the inside out. By not paying as much attention to one thing we are able to pay more attention to something else, which brings us to a new level of spiritual dependence and renews our perspective, commitment and resolve. In fasting, we surrender ourselves to God, showing Him that a relationship with Him is a priority in our lives.

It also enables us to celebrate the goodness and mercy of God and prepares our hearts for all the good things God desires to bring into our lives. Jesus invites His followers to fast, so we fast in this life because we believe in the life to come. We fast from what we can see and taste, because we have tasted and seen the goodness of God—and are desperately hungry for more of Him.

Remember, your personal fast should present a level of challenge, but it is very important to know your body, your options, and, most importantly, to seek God in prayer and follow what the Holy Spirit leads you to do.

At Life Church, we encourage people to fast for 21 days as part of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, a season of focused prayer as a church family. We also encourage you to choose to fast at other times during the year for your own spiritual development. It’s very typical to fast a single meal, a whole day, or three days or more. The timing of your fast is not as important as the strength of your focus on God as you fast.

There are lots of ways to fast. A few are below:

COMPLETE FAST
In this type of fast, you drink only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option.

SELECTIVE FAST
This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove meat, sweets, and bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits and vegetables for food (Daniel 1:5-21 and Daniel 10:2-3).

If you need additional guidance on what to eat during a Daniel Fast, download this PDF for guidelines.

PARTIAL FAST
This fast is sometimes called the “Jewish Fast” and involves abstaining from eating any type of food in the morning and afternoon. This can either correlate to specific times of the day, such as 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, or from sunup to sundown.

SOUL FAST
This fast is a great option if you do not have much experience fasting food, have health issues that prevent you from fasting food, or if you wish to refocus certain areas of your life that are out of balance. For example, you might choose to stop using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast and then carefully bring that element back into your life in healthy doses at the conclusion of the fast.

There are lots of instances of fasting in the Bible. Here are just a few references for you to begin your research:

Matthew 6:16-18

Matthew 9:14-15

Luke 18:9-14

Acts 27:33-37

Nehemiah 9:1-3