Definition of Fasting

How it Works

Choose the day you want to fast on, such as the first, the fourteenth, and so on—you get the idea. We hope to have a number of prayer warriors fasting for AiG on a given day each month.

What do you mean by fasting?

The original idea of the fast was to eat no food; drink liquids only.

What if I can’t fast like that?

If you have health problems that prevent you from a full-day fast, please consider an alternative fasting method. Think of anything that you would want throughout the day and then deny yourself of it. It could be a meal or sweets, it could be TV, it could be the web, it could be traveling by car, it could be sports, it could be shopping, or whatever—anything that would be a sacrifice. God knows the attitude of each individual’s heart.

“Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves.” (Leviticus 23:27, NIV)

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6, NIV)

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:16–18)

Biblical dictionary definitions

• Fasting: voluntary abstinence from food.
• Abstinence: to hold oneself from.