Fasting one meal: skipping a meal to pray, discreetly

Fasting may seem reserved for very advanced believers, for solemn moments, for faraway cultures. Yet it is a simple gesture, accessible, and frequent in the Bible. This weekly quest offers a first experience: skipping a meal, and devoting that time to prayer, discreetly.

What it looks like in your day

Choose a meal. A lunch, a dinner, more rarely breakfast. Choose a quiet day, with little physical effort.

Check that you can do it. If you are pregnant, diabetic, if you take a treatment that requires meals, if you have or have had eating disorders, don't fast from food: choose another giving-up (screens, a hobby). If in doubt, ask a doctor for advice.

Give yourself an intention. Why this meal? For a decision, for a person, to refocus, to express your dependence on God. A specific intention gives meaning.

Replace the meal with prayer. At the time you would have eaten, withdraw for ten to twenty minutes: prayer, reading, silence. Drink water.

Stay discreet. Don't tell everyone. If someone invites you to eat, you can simply say you're not hungry.

Resume simply. At the next meal, eat reasonably, without excess.

Notice what happens. Hunger, possible tiredness, clarity, dependence. What did you learn?

This quest differs from a longer or more structured approach: it is a simple, repeated gesture that teaches you to read the body's needs as an invitation to prayer.

If you are short on time, withdraw for ten minutes. If you are shy, discretion is precisely the goal. If it is your first time, a single meal is more than enough.

What the Bible says

Jesus gives an instruction about discretion:

“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

“When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face”: fasting is not a show. It is lived in secret, before the Father who sees. The example of Jesus himself is instructive:

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

After forty days of fasting, he is hungry, and that is when the devil tempts him. His answer: man shall not live by bread alone. Fasting teaches that God's word nourishes more than bread. In the book of Esther, the queen asks everyone to fast for her before going before the king (Esther 4:16): fasting accompanies a serious request.

Pitfalls to avoid

Putting yourself in danger. Fasting is not a feat. Listen to your body: if you feel unwell, eat.

Fasting as a show. Avoid remarks, complaints, sad faces. Jesus warns against this.

Fasting as bargaining. Fasting doesn't force God's hand. It opens you to him.

Neglecting prayer. A skipped meal without prayer is just a skipped meal. Really use this time.

Judging those who don't fast. Everyone has their own path. Don't compare.

This week, choose a meal to skip, with a specific intention. Pray instead, discreetly.