When it comes to fasting, I’ve often heard the framing, “Jesus said, ‘when you fast,’ not ‘if you fast.’” Then whoever was speaking would point out different times when people fasted in the Bible. And that is a great framing of fasting, and honestly, it is convicting to me.

But recently, as I’ve been studying Matthew during my Bible time, I became curious about one of the times when Jesus himself fasted. If you are not familiar with fasting, that’s totally okay. In its simplest sense, fasting is intentionally going without food for a period of time to focus more on God.

Matthew chapter four takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, right after his baptism. We are told that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). And the next sentence is where I want to focus for a moment.

Matthew tells us, “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he [Jesus] was hungry .” - Matthew 4:2
And that is where I chuckle a little bit, because I would be way more than just “hungry” if I had fasted for forty days and forty nights. I would likely be in a coma (maybe not, but close).

It is only after this extended time of fasting that Jesus is tempted by the devil. That detail has always made me stand in awe of Jesus. I used to think to myself, “Man, only Jesus could resist temptation like that after going through something as difficult as forty days of fasting.”

But last week, I read something that helped shift my view of both this story and fasting itself.

I am sure Jesus was physically hungry at the end of those forty days, but I now think he may have actually been at his strongest spiritually because of his fast. I had always assumed the fast left Jesus at his weakest. But what if, physically weak as he was, the fast had actually left him spiritually strong?

Here is what the author wrote about Matthew chapter four that helped persuade me:

“But what if those forty days of fasting actually made Jesus stronger? Jesus was not fasting to make himself weak so that his resistance to the devil would be impressive. He spent that time fasting so that he could devote himself completely to being with his Father. After forty days of unbroken communion with God, Jesus’s spirit was in a state of great strength, not weakness. I think that resisting the temptations of the devil was actually pretty easy for him at that point.” — A Spiritual Formation Primer by Richella Parham, pp.28-29.

In other words, the fast was not simply something Jesus endured before the temptation; it was time spent with the Father that prepared him for it.

Here was the helpful reminder for me: Fasting is not just about sacrificing food for the sake of suffering or trying to be spiritually impressive. Fasting is an act of obedience that creates space for us to focus more fully on the Father and become strengthened by him. With the right focus on God, fasting teaches us to rely on God rather than relying on ourselves.

So over these next two days, as we fast, my encouragement is to focus less on the food we are going without and more on the Father we are making room for. When you feel hungry, let that hunger remind you to pray, spend time with God, and rely on him. My hope is that we don’t simply finish the fast hungry. I hope we finish it stronger, having spent more time with the Father.