Elmer L. Towns - The Essential Guide to Fasting: What It Is, How to Do It, and Why It Matters

G od created the human body as a finely tuned physical engine of enormous power, but it requires fuel to keep operating. That fuel is called food. To make sure the body gets fuel, God has created within us an appetite for food, called hunger. As part of the balance of nature to keep life going, food satisfies our appetite and gives us strength.

So why would one choose to go without food?

Americans are programmed to eat three times a day. We constantly hear the message, A good breakfast is the foundation of the day. Our mothers told us, Eat so youll be strong, right along with, Come in out of the rain so you wont catch a cold. In school we were taught, Eat three square meals a day and Exercise to be strong. Since our childhood, we have been taught to take care of our bodies.

So why should one go without eating?

Starvation is still a worldwide threat. In 1978, I went to Haiti as part of a massive feeding program when that nation endured a famine, compounded by poverty. The swollen bellies of hungry little children distressed me. Starving people stampeded our vehicles for food, trampling fallen children just to get a loaf of bread. With much of the world clamoring for food like this, why would one voluntarily go without eating?

The world calls not eating dieting, and usually does it to lose weight or for health reasons. But some go without eating for spiritual reasons. The Bible calls this fasting. Usually a fast is for a predetermined length of time to accomplish a spiritual purpose.

Consider an example from the Old Testament. Once a year the Jewish believers were required to fast: On the tenth day of the seventh month of each year, you must go without eating (Lev. 16:29 CEV ). This fast was kept on the Day of Atonement, and so it is called the Yom Kippur Fast (the phrase means Day of Atonement). Conversely, there were seven other days in the Jewish calendar where believers were commanded to eat a feast because God realized there was great spiritual benefit in fellowship when believers eat together. But once each year on the Day of Atonement, God required His people to fast. Everyone went without eating. Why everyone? Because God wanted everyone to remember the solemn experience of his or her salvation. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest took the blood of an animal into the Holy of Holies to offer it in substitution for the sins of everyone: And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people (Lev. 16:24). Because the Day of Atonement dealt with the sins of the nation, everyone fasted to identify with the high priest, who sacrificed a lamb for the forgiveness of their sin.