Piper

What makes a person a Christian is not that he doesn’t get discouraged, and it’s not that he doesn’t sin and feel miserable about it. What makes a person a Christian is the connection that he has with Jesus Christ that shapes how he thinks and feels about his discouragement and his sin and guilt.

Q&A…Question # 11

“What is fasting? Why do we do it?”

Sorry for being very slack in posting blogs. We have been entering a very busy time for us, and many things have been brought to us that deserve our full attention. Nevertheless, I want to be faithful to you guys in answering some of the questions that you guys have. And I think his question about fasting would be the most appropriate right now, considering the fact that we are beginning to fast once a week for a building. Now what is fasting and why do we do it?

Now fasting is a practice that goes back even into the times of King David and even Moses. Now what exactly is fasting? Well fasting, basically, is when you do not eat food for a period of time. We see this with Moses when he says that when he received the Ten Commandments he “neither ate bread nor drank water.” (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 9:9,18 ) Also we see this with Jesus. “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” (Matthew 4:2) During the fast of Jesus, He was tempted by Satan to make bread out of stones. So we see that fasting is denying your body nourishment.