The Surprising Benefit of Fasting

Every kid has heard it (or something like it).

“Dad, I’m hungry.”

A moment of silence, and then:

“Well, heeeellllooooo, Hungry. I’m dad!”

What’s that verse in Ephesians 6? “Fathers, do not exasperate your children” (Eph. 6:4a)? Yeah, I’m guilty of breaking that command. A LOT.

Bad dad jokes aside, though, I actually think there’s something to that “Hello, Hungry!” line we exasperating dads often trot out.

Confusing Appetites with Identity

The simple fact is that whether we realize it or not, many of us do often reduce ourselves to our appetites. “I AM hungry,” we say. Not, “I feel hungry.” Not, as the corresponding Spanish phrase would have it, “Tengo hambre,” “I have hunger.” No, we say, “I AM hungry.” It’s my essence. It’s who I am. It’s my identity.

Now, when it’s a kid talking about food and their physical hunger, that sort of linguistic and mental slip isn’t a big deal. But when it’s an entire culture, an entire worldview that sees our desires and appetites as core parts of our identity, then it starts to become a bit more problematic.

Take, for instance, our culture’s view of sex. When sex becomes another appetite, another desire, and another physical need that we just need to satisfy (which is one of the disordered ways our culture sees sex), it can easily turn it into something that feels like a core part of who we are, something that defines us, and so, as a result, something that we just have to have, no matter what.

Or take consumerism. “He who dies with the most toys wins,” we say. But when the next purchase, the next item, and the next product become must-haves, something we have to own, have to buy, and have to possess, well then we end up possessed by our possessions, identified by the stuff we own, and defined by what we have rather than by who God says we are.

And so, the question as Christians is this: How can we learn to control our appetites (which are natural and originally good, and yet bad when they’re out of control) so that we don’t end up defined and dominated by them?

The Church’s Answer

The Christian church (and other spiritual traditions too, but I’m a Christian, so we’ll stick with that) has long had an answer: fasting.

Fasting is how we learn to do that.

Fasting is how we learn to control our appetites.

And that’s because fasting is how we learn to disentangle our identity and who we are from our desires, our appetites, and the things we think define us, so that we can instead define ourselves rightly, according to the way God defines us.

Fasting From Food

Now, people talk about fasting in a lot of different ways.

For instance, some people talk about “fasting” as abstaining from things such as social media, certain websites, or even the internet as a whole.

Others will talk about “fasting” as abstaining from problematic habits like criticizing other people or comparing yourself to others. In fact, I myself used to do this. That’s because I used to think that fasting could refer to abstaining from anything, as long as it was something that, by abstaining from it, improved your relationship with God.

But over time I’ve learned that that’s not really fasting. Rather, fasting, at least, fasting proper, is the spiritual discipline of abstaining from food.

And here’s why that’s important:

As helpful as abstaining from other things might be (and it’s actually a spiritual discipline all its own, the spiritual discipline of “abstinence”), it doesn’t help us gain control over our physical appetites the same way that fasting does.

And that’s because fasting, by training us to abstain from and learn control over one of our physical appetites (our appetite for food), actually helps us abstain from and learn control over our other physical appetites as well.

The Surprising Benefit of Fasting

Now, there are a lot of reasons people fast.

For instance, some people fast for health reasons. In fact, it’s actually become something of a secular health trend in recent years. “Intermittent fasting,” people call it, and fitness influencers all over the world seem to be picking up on it.

Others fast for the mental and cognitive clarity it provides. That’s because (and this has been well-documented by a number of scientific studies) fasting has been shown to improve mental focus and acuity, both in the short term and the long term.

But as Christians, the main reason we fast is to strengthen our faith. Fasting teaches us dependence on God, recenters our relationship with him, and reminds us that, more than anything else (even including food), we need him to sustain and strengthen us.

And yet I’ve found that one of the surprising “side” benefits of fasting is that it teaches me control over my appetites. Put simply, the longer I’ve fasted, the more I’ve learned that the discipline of fasting doesn’t just help me control my appetite for food, but it also helps me control my other physical appetites too. For instance, it helps me control my appetite for sex. It helps me control my appetite for sleep. It helps me control my appetite for alcohol. It helps me control my appetite for working out. And so on and so forth.

And as a somewhat impulsive Millennial who was raised in a culture that told me my appetites are my identity and so I should do whatever I want, that’s important. It’s important to learn control over those appetites, to put a cap on them, and to remember that, as much as our culture says otherwise, those appetites aren’t truly who I am.

Rather, who I truly am is who God says I am.

And who’s that? What’s my true identity?

I’m God’s beloved child through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And fasting continues to remind me of that.