All About Fasting
Fasting
At Jubilee, we encourage fasting as part of the 21 Days of prayer in January. These 21 Days are a dedicated time for focused prayer as a church family. You may also choose to fast at other times during the year for your own spiritual growth.
“When you fast, don’t look like those who pretend to be spiritual. They want everyone to know they’re fasting, so they appear in public looking miserable, gloomy, and disheveled. Believe me, they’ve already received their reward in full. When you fast don’t let it be obvious, but instead, wash your face and groom yourself and realize that your Father in the secret place is the one who is watching all that you do in secret and will continue to reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:16-18TPT
Types of Fasts
COMPLETE FAST
In this type of fast, you drink only liquids, typically water with light juices or broth as an option.
SELECTIVE FAST
This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet.
One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast during which you remove meat, sugar, and bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits, vegetables, and grains for food.
PARTIAL FAST
This fast is sometimes called the “Jewish Fast” and involves abstaining from eating any type of food in the morning and afternoon. This can either correlate to specific times of the day such as 6:00am to 3:00pm, or from sunup to sundown.
SOUL FAST
This fast is a great option if you do not have much experience with fasting food, have health issues that prevent you from fasting food, or if you wish to refocus certain areas of your life that are out of balance. For example, you might choose to stop using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast.
What type of fast or the timing of your fast are not as important as the strength of your focus on God and your commitment to prayer during your fast.