Fasting is an important activity to further build spiritually and also helps in daily life, but there are some important things that must be paid more attention to when fasting. The focus of fasting on Christians lies not only in their routine, but also in their approach to God. The following are some of the true ways of fasting in the most correct Christians as your guide.
For starters, determine the initial reason for your fasting, whether to add to the experience from a spiritual perspective, for guidance, to get healing, to solve a problem or to get answers in problems that are being experienced. Ask for help from the Holy Spirit to clarify all your problems and also His purpose so that you can pray more specifically and your request can be stated clearly. Fasting in Christians means humbling ourselves before God and allowing the Holy Spirit to move our hearts, awaken the church and restore our country and this is the main focus when you fast.
Types of Christian Fasting
There are 3 main types of fasting in Christians that are stated in the Bible, namely:
Ordinary Fasting: Abstain from all hard and soft foods but do not abstain from water.
Full Fasting: Not eating and not drinking which usually doesn't have to be done longer, which is no more than 3 days, because a person's body will become dry when they don't get water for more than 2 days.
Partial Fasting: Limiting food and not eating anything at all.
Types of Fasting of Christians Based on the Bible
Fasting of Moses: 40 days and 40 nights without eating and drinking nothing (Ex 24:16 and Ex 34:28).
David's Fast: Not eating and lying all night on the ground (2 Sam 12:16).
Elijah's fast: 40 days and 40 nights on foot (1 Kings 19:8).
Esther's fast: 3 days and 3 nights neither eating nor drinking (Esth 4:16).
Job's fast: 7 days 7 nights, no sound (2:13).
Daniel's fast: 10 days of eating vegetables and drinking only water (Dan 1:12), prayer and fasting (Dan 9:3), 21 days of mourning (Dan 10:2)
Jonah's fast: 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the fish (Jonah 1:17).
Fasting Nineveh: 40 days and 40 nights not eating, not drinking, and doing nothing bad (Jonah 3:7).
The Main Purpose of Christian Fasting
To humble ourselves before God.
To express our deep love for the Lord Jesus.
To make our bodies more disciplined from worldly desires such as by means of self-denial.
To increase sympathy for others so that they can feel the suffering of others.
To ask God for answers to all the problems we experience.
To exorcise certain types of demons that can only be expelled by performing fasting prayers.
Christian Fasting Preparation
The prayer basis of fasting in Christianity is repentance and unrecognized sin will become an obstacle in your prayer.
Below are some things that must be done to prepare the heart during fasting.
Confess all sins so that the Holy Spirit can remember you and receive forgiveness from God [1 John 1:9]
Seek forgiveness from everyone you've offended, you dumped and forgive everyone who's ever hurt you. [Mark 11:25; Luke 11:4; 17:3,4].
Make the Holy Spirit your leader and guide.
Ask God to fill your heart and soul with the Holy Spirit according to what He commanded in Ephesians 5:18 and also His promise in John 5:14-15.
Surrender your life entirely to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and reject all desires of the flesh [Romans 12 1:2].
Contemplating the nature of God, God's love, sovereignty, wisdom, power, grace, faithfulness and so on [Psalm 48:9-10, 103:1-8, 11-13].
Begin times of prayer and fasting with a heart full of hope [Hebrews 11:16].
In Christian fasting requires reasonable precautions, it is better to consult a doctor first, especially if you have a chronic illness, because some people should not fast without the supervision of an expert. Physical preparation will also make many changes in your eating routine, so that your attention will be more focused on God in the form of prayer. In Protestant Christianity it is not required to fast, while for Catholic Christians it is required to fast during Lent.
How to Fast for Christians
For how to fast can be determined by each individual such as 8 hours, 1 day, 1 day 1 night, 3 days, 7 days, 40 days and so on. In addition, also determine what type of fasting is carried out, such as not eating and not drinking, only eating vegetables, fasting bad habits such as not smoking, not gambling and so on.
1. The Christian Way of Fasting in the Morning
Fasting and prayer must be connected and if you focus too much on fasting ie not eating and drinking should not happen, because the main purpose of fasting for Christians is to distance ourselves from all worldly things and focus more on God.
Start with praise and worship.
Read and meditate on God's Word with the best position on your knees.
Invite the Holy Spirit to work in you.
Inviting God to use and use you.
Ask God for guidance in influencing you, your family, church, community, country and so on.
2. The Christian Way of Fasting During the Day
Fasting is a way of demonstrating to God and to ourselves in proclaiming that you are very serious about your relationship with God and it will help you to gain a new perspective and renew your dependence on God.
Pray again and listen to God's Word.
Prayer while walking in a short time.
Spend time with intercession for leaders and nations and all peoples of the world, as well as families or other special needs.
3. The Christian Way of Fasting at Night
By diverting our eyes from worldly things, then we can focus on Christ better and fasting itself is not a way for God to do everything we want, fasting is only to change ourselves for the better and not change God.
Spend a little time seeking God's face.
If you are fasting with other people, then take time to meet and pray together.
Keep all things that can extinguish your spiritual fasting such as cell phones, television and so on.
Begin and end the fast by kneeling before Him by giving praise and thanksgiving to Allah.
Bring God in prayer and study all His Words.
The Bible does not specifically command Christians to fast and fasting is not something that God requires of Christians. The Bible only introduces fasting as a good deed and is so useful that it is necessary to do so.
Fasting in Christians is not done in order to appear better in spiritual matters than others and must be done with all humility and full of joy.