Fasting has been around for hundreds of thousands of years. It has been used medicinally as well as spiritual in a number of religions including Christianity, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu.
Fasting is said to bring you closer to The Higher Power by abstaining from food and placing your focus the needs of the soul instead of the regular programming of the needs our body calls us to fulfill.
In this weeks article we will be focusing on the soul benefits of fasting.
What does Fasting mean?
In English, the word fast has several different definitions such as abstaining from food, not easily freed, firmly loyal and agile of mind https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fasting.
There are also 2 Hebrew words that mean fast. One is Tzom and the other is Ta’anit. Tzom is a Biblical word that doesn’t appear in the Torah.
The first two Hebrew letters of Tzom have meanings similar to the English definition of fast in that they can be used to signify drawing together and to contract. They can also be joined together with other Hebrew letters to mean couple, lock or braid, press, reduce, shrink, and shrivel.
Ta’anit is in both the Rabbinic Hebrew and the Bible. It derives from the Biblical root meaning you shall afflict your soul https://mizrachi.org/wp-.content/uploads/2020/07/HaMizrachi-Tisha-BAv-2020_31.pdf.
Drawing from this 2 sources and definitions, in this article, we will define Fasting as abstaining from food to afflict the soul and draw together, in firm loyalty, to God with an agile mind.
Does Fasting help my body?
Fasting is a tool we can use to draw closer to God and refocus our minds onto what His purpose is for our lives. Though fasting can make us feel like we are suffering, there are plenty of health benefits for the body.
Research shows that a 10-16 hour fast will prompt the body to utilize fat stores which results in the release of ketones into the blood stream. These ketones aid in the protection of memory and learning functionality according to the National Institute of Health https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3680567/#:~:text=If%20you%20don’t%20eat,disease%20processes%20in%20the%20brain.
The National Library of Medicine also published a study that confirmed intermittent fasting improves cognitive functions of the brain and the prevention of progression related to brain disorders https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8470960/.
John Hopkins reported that fasting assists in the verbal memory of adult humans, improves blood pressure, helps prevent obesity, helps reduce insulin resistance, and in some medically supervised cases, reversed insulin therapy for patients https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.
During a fasting period, chemical reactions that break down molecules into smaller, energy releasing pieces, are favored along with the enhancements of stress reducers and tissue repair. Fasting also encourages the process of converting damaged proteins and molecules into their original condition to be used again https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8470960/.
What types of Fasts are there?
There are about 11 different types of food fasts:
- Fast Mimicking Diet: 500-600 calories a day for a week
- OMAD: One meal a day
- Alternate Day Fasting
- Warrior Diet Fast: Fast for 20 hours, food window of 4hrs
- 12-Hour: Fast for 12 eat for 12
- Eat Stop Eat: Fasting 24 hours 1-2x per week
- 5:2: drop calories to 500-600 for 2 non-consecutive days
- 16:8: Fast for 16 hours and eat for
Fasting can include food or other commodities. Recently I did a 24 hour fast that including abstaining from food, juice, social media, alcohol, and cannabis. At other times I have fasted from food and my phone altogether for 24 hours.
However you decide to fast, consider dedicating yourself to The Most High God and discover the soul benefits of fasting.
What are The Soul Benefits of Fasting?
As we have discovered, fasting has a wonderful benefit to the body. It can assist the heart and the mind, but it can also assist the soul.
As a Christian, the understanding that fasting is suffering is given in the body’s response to lack of food. At times, I have found it to be difficult to institute a practice of fasting due to the suffering of being absent from calories that provide my body with energy.
During periods of fasting, I shift and fix my focus from the food I am lacking to the insight I wish to gain from God. Ezra fasted and stated that the fast was “to humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions” Ezra 8:21.
Fasting is a tool to draw closer to God and gain clarity on your life’s purpose and receive clear direction from God. The Bible says “Seek the Lord in all thy ways and He shall direct your path” Proverbs 3:6.
With the verse of Ezra and the Proverbs, we can use both to understand that God will give us mental clarity through fasting and seeking Him. The research we previously mentioned, confirms that our mind gains the ability to learn and function through the power of fasting.
In addition, we remind our bodies that though it has needs that drive us on a regular basis, our soul is the main force behind our being and deserves the attention and care we provide it through fasting and God centered focus.
When I complete a fast, I find myself to be more grateful toward God and the things He has allowed me to possess in this life. I fight through the days challenge of desiring food and I refocus my attention to God and what He is calling me to do. As a writer, I use my once a week fasts to ask God what I should write about for the week and I open myself up to what He says and I receive it. The Soul Benefits of fasting are numerous and include freedom, God’s guidance, peace, clarity, protection, and true love.
Isaiah 58:6 – “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
With Love,
Mother Ocia