Can Fasting Get You Closer To God?
If fasting to get closer to God were possible, then any unbeliever or Christian could fast and enjoy the presence of the Lord God. But is this possible?
That doesn’t stop many people, unbelievers and Christians, to think, feel, and teach that a Christian can get closer to God by fasting and that it is a natural phenomenon!
They read the following verse of Scripture and misunderstand it!
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
James 4:8
Many of them think and will explain that fasting to get closer to God is achievable and some will even confess that they have achieved it!
Consequently, they are persuaded that fasting to get closer to God works and is a legitimate task and a noble Christian objective.
But has any Bible Character fasted and gotten closer to God because he or she did so? Does the Bible describe this event and where could we find it?
These and others are some of the questions I will attempt to answer in this Bible Study. So, join me, and let’s explore the Word of God together.
Table of Contents
What Does Fasting To Get Closer To God Mean?
Fasting to get closer to God implies that fasting in itself by doing it brings you closer to God.
Therefore, the supporters of this doctrine, feel and teach that people, whether Christians or Unbelievers, who fast frequently are much closer to God than those who don’t.
But is this true or biblical?
How Does Fasting Bring You Closer to God?
To understand this topic we must know God. He is infinite and fills the universe. There is nowhere you could go and God is not already there.
He’s in our past, and present and will be in our future!
Thus, when we discuss how fasting brings you closer to God, we are not dealing with the physical?
The Lord God is not far off or near, He’s just there!
Can Fasting Get You Closer To God?
To comprehend whether fasting could get us closer to God we must fully understand two things: the nature of God and what fasting does for Christians!
The Lord God is not a human being. God is a Spirit!
Consequently, if you have believed that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God and you have received his Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ lives in you, then God is in you.
Then how much closer could God get to you?
In the Old Testament, God was with His people, but He was on some of them. In the New Testament, but after the ascension of Christ Jesus, God is with His people, but He is in some of them.
This is the closest God will ever be to us, in us!
How Can Fasting Bring You Closer To Christ?
Fasting, in of itself and fasting alone cannot bring us closer to God. To think that it does is to be ignorant of the workings of fasting in our lives.
Our fasting does not move God from point A to point B because He is already at point B! Neither, does it move us nearer to Him.
Thus, this expression is a symbolic one. It doesn’t move God or us.
If fasting got us closer to God then Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa would be closer to God than many of us!
They fasted, especially the former one, often and for many moons.
But that’s not the case. They were not closer to God than you or I am.
Fasting, and only Christian Fasting, benefits us and not God. But one of the benefits is not that we are closer to God.
As a result my friends, we all need to understand the spiritual benefits of fasting. Why do we fast; what does fasting do for us and God?
Fasting In Repentance And Mourning?
When and at what point, fasting enters into repentance and mourning? There is no connection between fasting, repentance and mourning.
Fasting is mourning. But fasting has nothing to do with repentance and mourning because mourning is not fasting.
Repentance is of the heart and there is little or no relationship between it and mourning or fasting!
It’s a one-way street. Read more about this here.
Did Moses Get Closer to God Because He Fasted?
The Holy Bible does not teach this. And Neither is there any record of anyone who fasted and got closer to God as a result of it.
Conclusion
Many people, Unbelievers, and Christians use the phrase fasting to get closer to God metaphorically for us to understand how sinful or far we are from God.
But fasting does not move God on our behalf. Neither does it move us towards God. God does not move for He’s everywhere simultaneously.
He is God! He does not need to move.
