Secrets Revealed: Fasting

“When you fast anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to be fasting.”

Fasting is often associated with empty stomachs and fatigue. Those who hear the word fast or lent from their local church leader cringe at the thought of the next 21 to 40 days. For the Prophet Daniel, fasting was not about simply emptying himself. Fasting meant about making room for the power of God.

From a young age, the Prophet Daniel was taken from his homeland and forced to live in captivity of the pagan Babylonian culture. He and 70 other young Jewish teenagers were to be ripped from the arms of their parents and placed in the kings courts to be molded into the image of good Babylonian slaves. It all started with the promise of a good education and good food.

However, Daniel and his three companions choose not to defile themselves with the kings food and asked to be only fed vegetables and water. The chief eunuch in charge of the Jewish boys worried that Daniel's diet would make them weak and frail. So Daniel proposed a ten day challenge. If he was found to be ill fit compared to the others under the eunuchs charge, he would relent and eat the king's food.

After the ten day challenge Daniel and his friends were more healthy and wise than any of the other young Jewish captives. In time, their relationship with God made them more wise and fit than any in the Babylonian Empire.

Fasting is about emptying ourselves to be fill with God. Within the secrets of our heart, we hope for the Lord to provide us with His power apart from our own. Daniel purposed in his heart that only God could give him what he needed. Rather than getting weaker and complain during his fast, he became wiser, stronger, and more hopeful. When people see us fast they should see a transformation from one state of glory to the next. Anything else is not fasting, but merely dieting and worthless.