What Kind of Fast Have You Chosen?
Isaiah 58:1–14
April 10, 2025
It’s Lent—a sacred time of year marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each of these pillars invite us into deeper communion with God, but it’s fasting that gets the most attention. I hear so much about the different kinds of fasts people choose for these 40 days. But let’s be honest—sacrifice and abstinence are not popular words in our culture today. They challenge us. They require us to deny ourselves, and say "no" to what we want. And that’s hard.
We live in a world that celebrates excess. We eat too much. Drink too much. Spend too much. The list goes on, and the people of God, are not immune.
In Isaiah 58, God speaks to the people of Judah and challenges their fasting, not because they weren’t doing it, but because they were doing it for the wrong reasons. Their fasts had become selfish, performative, and disconnected from true transformation. And so God asked them as He asks us today: "Is this the kind of fast I have chosen?"
Too often, we fast for 40 days, count down until it’s over, and then return to our old habits—as if nothing changed. That is not the fast God desires. Fasting is not about the ritual. It’s about the renewal.
True fasting is self-denial that draws us closer to God. When we deny ourselves the pleasures of the flesh—be it food, drink, or other indulgences—we devote that time to the Lord and make space for something greater. We become more spiritually awake, more attuned to the whisper of the Holy Spirit, more aware of the things that matter to God.
Fasting is about priorities. It is the practice of reordering our lives—putting God’s concerns first. It weakens the grip of the flesh so that the spirit rises stronger. It’s not merely about what we give up, but what we give over to God.
Isaiah 58 reveals God’s heart: He is less concerned with how often we turn down our plates, and more concerned with how often we turn down the world’s endless invitations to self-indulgence. God desires is a fasted life—a life not ruled by our appetites, but by our alignment with His will.
Instead of asking “What do I want?” the fasted life asks, “Lord, what do You will?” It’s a life lived in faithful response to God, grounded in humility and passion for what truly matters. It is a life that blesses others, seeks justice, and cares for the broken and the poor. It is a life that changes the world because it has first been changed by God.
So I ask you, in this season of Lent: what kind of fast have you chosen? And more importantly—what kind of life are you choosing? Let’s embrace a fast that transforms us and a life that shows it long after the 40 days are done.