I’m not much into fasting. I get grouchy when I don’t eat (just ask my wife). I guess, with my high metabolism, my body doesn’t like being starved. But I have, a couple times in my life, fasted for a brief period of time. But neither of them really count for much. One of the times was when I was in elementary school – the children’s ministry at church had an all-boys over-night event at church and if we made it the entire night without eating we won a prize. It wasn't very hard because there wasn't any food there anyway. And the other time was a sort of assignment as part of a spiritual formation class in seminary. It was a good time of prayer and meditation, but I’m not sure I would have fasted if I weren’t required to. Obviously my experience with fasting is not authoritative or exemplary. But I wonder, is there any spiritual value to fasting? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to His followers, “When you fast…” (Matt. 6:15). Jesus assumed that His followers were fasting. Is that a safe assumption? Do we fast? Should we fast? The importance of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, giving, and meditation on the Scriptures are reaffirmed in the Bible over and over – but fasting is not often spoken of . I know of no command that believers fast. In the Old Testament, fasting was commanded once a year, as part of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27). Jesus mentions it only twice more: once suggesting that the disciples shouldn’t fast while He was with them (Matt. 9:15); once in a parable in which a Pharisee gets no points for fasting. And then there are two examples of believers fasting in the book of Acts: Peter was fasting before the vision of the sheet (Acts 10:11) and the Antioch church fasted before sending out Paul and Barnabus (Acts 13:2-3). This suggests that there may be times you want to fast, times in which you need to devote yourself to serious prayer. But I know of no command to fast, only examples to follow. I believe that fasting is a good thing, but not an essential spiritual discipline. I believe that there is no spiritual value to fasting in itself – the value is found in the prayer to which you devote yourself while you would otherwise be eating. I know that a lot of Christians will disagree with me. And maybe my thinking is guided by my growling stomach. But I’ll always be haunted by the words of Dietrich Bonfoeffer, “How is it possible to live the life of faith when we grow weary of prayer, when we lose our taste for reading the Bible, and when sleep, food, and sensuality deprive us of the joy of communion with God?”