Anyone who grows up in a Christian household has a basic idea of fasting. Many people have wrong ideas and approaches to it and it’s quite difficult to get everything biblical in line.

The first few times that I fasted, I got it very wrong.

The definition of a fast is to to deny food for a spiritual purpose. I was always more excited about how much weight I might lose or that I could have an excuse to be lazy for the day, than that I was actually drawing myself closer to God.

I have subsequently learnt a lot more about fasting and have not fasted for a while because I realised that my approach was so wrong and I needed to get myself straight.

Another important thing to remember about fasting is that it is not about changing God it is about changing yourself. Abstaining from food is not going to make God change His plans, but rather bring you in line with his plans and change your heart to be more in line with His. Once I got that into my head, fasting became so much more understandable.

There are many kinds of fasts. You can only drink liquids or only water or just cut out a certain food, such as chocolate. You can also just drink water or cut everything out for a day. Some people will fast just one meal or one day or a few days or weeks or months. The key is to know that you are using the cravings and added time to remind you and give you time to spend in prayer and meditation. It’s no good cutting something out and letting the rest of life just carry on as normal. Fasting is supposed to change you. If you don’t make a concerted effort to get into God’s Word and spend time with Him then you are just going on another diet.

Our church often starts the year off with a corporate fast of some sort with the aim of bringing us together and giving over the year to God and just making sure that we are aligned with each other and with God. This year we are doing a 3 week Daniel Fast. Some people will do it only on particular days for a shorter period, but the idea is that we all commit to a period of fasting.

A Daniel Fast is essentially based on the book of Daniel in the Bible and specifically Daniel 1 and 10:2-3.  The Daniel Fast is a focus on cutting out all artificial products, all meat and animal by-products and anything that is overly processed. The best website I’ve found on this fast is www.daniel-fast.com which gives some practical advice as well as valuable insights.

Having done a bit of research into this I believe that it is a really cleansing and healthy thing to do not only spiritually, but physically as well. For this reason I have weighed myself and taken all of my measurements today so that I can see how things go at the end of the 3 weeks. I also am going to try to keep a journal of sorts so that I can see how God works in my life as I draw closer to Him.

The biggest thing to remember is not to get bogged down in the legalistic nature of what you can and can’t eat. If one list says you can have honey and herbal teas and another says you can’t it’s really up to you. The key, I think is to make a decision at the beginning about what you are cutting out and stick with it. Don’t suddenly decide half way through that you think herbal teas should be allowed.

Also, plan the time ahead. If you have a big event coming up and you know that you will need to break from the fast then accommodate that in your 3 week plan and just get back on track straight afterwards. For instance, I know that we are going out for supper on Friday evening and Saturday evening so it’s going to be difficult for me to maintain this on those two evenings. I’ve sorted that out already so my mind is right about it.

So here we go. Day 1 has begun with a bowl of strawberries for breakfast and lots of water and I’m off to the shops to stock up on some salad ingredients and to check out some vegan-type recipes for supper.