In this episode of Becoming Natural, we explore fasting benefits through a practical, faith-rooted look at modern fasting, biblical fasting, body rhythm, and spiritual hunger.

Read the full episode + resources here: https://becomingnatural.com/fasting-benefits-biblical-vs-modern-fasting/

What if fasting is not only about what happens when the body goes without food, but also about what the heart reaches for when comfort is removed?

In this episode of Becoming Natural, Penelope explores fasting benefits through two lenses: modern intermittent fasting and the ancient biblical practice of spiritual fasting.

We talk about why intermittent fasting became popular, what may happen in the body when we pause constant food intake, and how fasting can support rhythm, appetite awareness, digestive rest, and metabolic flexibility for some people.

But this conversation goes deeper than eating windows and metabolism.

Spiritual fasting asks a different question: What am I seeking with my whole heart?

Using Scripture, personal reflection, and insights from God’s Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis, this episode looks at fasting as a posture of dependence, surrender, prayer, humility, and wholehearted seeking.

You’ll hear about:

• why fasting from food requires wisdom

• how intermittent fasting differs from biblical fasting

• what hunger may reveal about comfort, control, and dependence

• why fasting is not about punishment or performance

• how Isaiah 58 reframes the heart of fasting

• practical ways to approach fasting gently

• why the body was designed for rhythm and the soul was designed for God

This episode is educational and is not medical advice. If fasting from food is not safe for your season, health, history, or nervous system, your faithful next step may be nourishment, rest, or fasting from something other than food.

Because healing is not just about what we remove.

It is about Who we make room for.

Recommended Links

• God’s Chosen Fast: https://amzn.to/3Px6LMG

• Life Application Study Bible: https://amzn.to/4uq2qtI

Some links may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share resources that fit the Becoming Natural standard.

Hosted by Penelope Sampler

Natural Wellness • Chronic Illness Journey • Faith & Wellness

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🛒 My Trusted Resources Contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the show.

📌 Note: I share what I’ve learned on my own journey — the things that have supported me in hard seasons. I offer personal experience, thoughtful research, and lots of encouragement. This podcast isn’t medical advice, and it shouldn’t replace care from a qualified professional. Always talk to someone you trust before making changes to your health routine.

© Becoming Natural Podcast.

# Episode 080 Final Transcript

Current-day fasting fads, intermittent fasting, and spiritual fasting

TRANSCRIPT LOCKED — FINAL SOURCE FOR PUBLISH CORE

## Length Dashboard

5,288 words

4,500–5,400 words

32–36 minutes

PASS

## Cold Start

Current-day fasting asks, “What happens when the body gets a break from constant food?”

Spiritual fasting asks, “What happens when the heart seeks God with all of itself?”

And somewhere between intermittent fasting, eating windows, insulin, prayer, and seeking God with urgency… I realized something.

I understood fasting more as a wellness tool than as a spiritual practice.

And that bothered me.

Because I could explain those eating windows, metabolism, and digestive rest.

But I could not explain why fasting and prayer kept showing up together in Scripture.

And that made me wonder…

Maybe fasting was never only about what the body does without food.

Maybe it was also about what the heart does when simple comforts are removed.

## Intro

Welcome back to Becoming Natural. I am Penny an occupational therapist, integrative health practitioner,and a mom who finds herself asking “why” way more than I used to.

Today we are opening the topic of **Fasting Benefits: A Practical and Rooted Look at Biblical vs Modern Fasting.**

A couple months ago, our minister briefly mentioned fasting in a sermon, and it sent me on a mission. I knew fasting and prayer were connected in the Bible. I knew Jesus talked about fasting. I knew people in Scripture fasted during grief, repentance, discernment, and deep need. In fact, resources say fasting is referenced more than 70 times in the Bible, depending on the translation.

But I also realized something uncomfortable: I understood intermittent fasting better than spiritual fasting.

I could talk about eating windows, blood sugar, digestive rest. As someone with Crohn’s, I also know my body has sometimes felt better with less food than with more.

But what does it mean to truly fast in the biblical sense? And what do modern meal fasting and spiritual fasting have in common, if anything?

So I reached out to my minister for direction. One resource pointed to another, and eventually I landed on a tiny but amazingly informative book by Arthur Wallis called *God’s Chosen Fast: A Spiritual and Practical Guide to Fasting*. It was first published in 1968, and my copy has been marked up, dog-eared, underlined, starred, and covered in margin notes. Small but mighty.

That book opened my eyes to something I had missed: prayer and fasting are often paired in Scripture because fasting brings the whole self into prayer.

It is the body joining the cry of the heart.

It is setting aside a legitimate appetite — food, comfort, routine — to seek God with deeper focus.

I am not pretending to be an expert here. I am still tiptoeing through my own spiritual growth, and prayer itself has been an area where I have felt challenged. Sometimes my prayer is simply, “Jesus,” trusting He knows the depth beneath that one word.

But fasting brought up a question I could not shake:

If fasting shows up again and again in Scripture, why do we hear so much about fasting for metabolism and so little about fasting for prayer, humility, surrender, and seeking God?

This brought me to Jeremiah 29:13–14, where God says that when His people seek Him with all their heart, He will be found by them.

That phrase — **with all their heart** — stayed with me.

Have I ever sought anything with my whole heart?

When I was facing dire health circumstances, I surrendered my body to God in a whole new way, and it became one of the most spiritually impactful seasons of my life. So today, we are going to compare two conversations: the trendy conversation around intermittent fasting and the ancient biblical practice of spiritual fasting.

One can teach us about the body’s need for rhythm.

The other can teach us about the soul’s need for dependence.

And both can reveal what we are truly hungry for.

If I have learned anything since starting Becoming Natural, it is that healing is rarely found in one simple answer. It usually comes through rhythms — small, faithful, nourishing rhythms. Sometimes even empty rhythms.

Today we will look first at current-day fasting fads, especially intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating. We will talk about what they are, why they became popular, and what the research suggests about possible benefits like insulin sensitivity, blood sugar support, digestive rest, appetite awareness, and metabolic flexibility.

Then we will look at spiritual fasting: what Scripture shows us, why fasting is often paired with prayer, and why hunger can become an invitation instead of something we immediately silence.

And woven through this whole episode is one big idea:

Intermittent fasting may teach us that the body was designed for rhythm.

Spiritual fasting teaches us that the soul was designed for dependence.

Before we go further, I want to say this clearly and tenderly: fasting from food needs wisdom.

This episode is educational and is not medical advice. If you are pregnant, underweight, a child or teenager, have a history of eating disorders, have blood sugar instability, take medications affected by food intake, or have a complex medical situation, please talk with a qualified healthcare professional before trying any fasting plan.

And if fasting from food brings up any kind of fear or negative emotions, please honor that.

For some, the faithful next step may be a food fast.

For others, it may be eating a real breakfast without guilt.

For others, it may be fasting from social media, comparison, late-night scrolling, or the voice that says you are always behind.

The Holy Spirit tends to get personal like that, gently pointing out the areas we need to tend.

## Why Fasting Became Trendy Again

Intermittent fasting became popular because it sounds simple. Instead of counting every calorie or measuring every bite, you focus on WHEN you eat.

Some people eat during an eight-hour window and fast for sixteen hours, often called 16:8. Some do a simple twelve-hour overnight fast, like dinner at 7 p.m. and breakfast at 7 a.m. There are many brands of fasting.

The basic idea is that the body gets a longer stretch without incoming food. And for a lot of people, that feels simpler than dieting.

There is no complicated point system. No calculator at every meal. No asking whether a banana is allowed after 2 p.m. on an even numbered Tuesday.

For some people, fasting really can help. It may reduce late-night snacking, increase appetite awareness, support blood sugar patterns, and give digestion a pause.

But wellness culture often takes something useful and makes it sound like the answer to everything.

Lose weight. Fix hormones. Reverse aging. Heal the gut. Become mentally sharp. Glow like a woman from the wild who drinks spring water and has never raised her voice at her children.

And that is where we pull ourselves together.

Fasting is a tool.

Helpful for some people.

Stressful for others.

Spiritual when paired with prayer and surrender.

Risky when paired with obsession or undernourishment.

So we are going to hold it with open hands.

## What Happens in the Body When We Fast

So what happens physiologically when we fast?

Every time we eat, the body begins the work of digestion and metabolism. Food gets broken down, nutrients are absorbed, blood sugar may rise, and insulin helps move glucose from the bloodstream into the cells.

Insulin is part of God’s good design. I know it gets treated like a villain in some wellness spaces, but insulin helps your body use the food we eat.

The problem comes when the body is constantly handling incoming food, especially in a modern lifestyle built on snacking, sweet drinks, stress, poor sleep, and ultra-processed foods designed to make us want more.

Over time, some people develop insulin resistance. A simple way to picture insulin is like a key that helps glucose enter the cell. When the system works well, insulin knocks, the cell responds, and glucose moves in. With insulin resistance, the cells become less responsive — like kids who absolutely saw your text and still have no intention of acknowledging it. Can I get an amen?

So the body may need more insulin to do the same job. That can affect hunger, cravings, energy, weight, inflammation, and long-term metabolic health.

When we fast, insulin may come down for a while because new food is processing. Depending on the person and the length of the fast, the body may begin using stored energy and shift from relying mostly on glucose toward using more fat and ketones.

This is sometimes called the metabolic switch.

Metabolic flexibility simply means the body can shift between fuel sources. It can use glucose when food is available and stored energy when food is not coming in.

That is a beautiful design.

The body adapts. The body communicates. The body knows how to shift gears when needed.

And sometimes fasting gives us a way to support that rhythm.

## The Benefit of Physical Rhythm

I think intermittent fasting resonates because our bodies were made for rhythm, and modern life has stripped a lot of our natural rhythms away.

We have light at night, food available 24/7, phones in our beds, stress with no true off switch, caffeine replacing much needed rest, and snacking replacing meals.

Then we wonder why the body feels confused.

The body has clocks. Sleep matters. Morning light matters. Meal timing can matter. Hormones and blood sugar have their own rhythm.

That is one reason late-night eating affects some people more strongly. If you eat a heavy meal or sugary snack late at night, your body may be digesting when it is also trying to wind down for sleep and repair. Very confusing for the poor body.

That does not mean a bedtime snack is wrong.

But for some people, closing the kitchen after dinner and letting the body rest overnight can be a gentle starting point. A twelve-hour overnight fast may sound boring compared to a twenty-hour fast, but boring is underrated.

Boring is where the nervous system exhales and says, “Oh, we are safe. We are not doing another dramatic biohacking plan today.”

For many people, a gentle overnight rhythm is better than jumping into long fasts:

Dinner.

Kitchen closed.

Hydration.

Sleep.

Nourishing breakfast.

That alone can reduce late-night snacking, support digestion, and help appetite cues become clearer.

## Digestive Rest and the Gut

Let’s talk about the gut, because fasting is often discussed as digestive rest.

Your digestive system does far more than move food from one end to the other. It coordinates stomach acid, enzymes, with bile, motility, and absorption, while also juggling immune signaling, microbial balance, and communication with the brain.

The gut is deeply connected to the nervous system, mood, inflammation, detoxification, and nutrient status. It is not just a plumbing process.

Between meals, the digestive tract has a cleanup rhythm called the migrating motor complex. It is a wave-like movement that sweeps through the small intestine like a housekeeping crew. If we graze constantly, some people may not get as much of that between-meal rhythm.

That does not mean everyone needs long fasts for gut health. But it does help explain why constant snacking can feel hard on some bodies.

The gut likes space, rhythm, enough food, enough nutrients, enough calm, and enough pause.

If you have ever cleaned a kitchen while people keep walking in trying to cook, you understand this. It is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. No progress.

At some point you want to say, “Could everyone please step away from the counter for twelve minutes so I can clean this place?”

Your digestive system may feel the same way.

And just to be clear, my body often prefers small snacks throughout the day. I cannot always eat large portions, and digestion can knock me off my feet if I overdo it. So any diet change is personal. Each person needs to be considered uniquely.

## Autophagy Without the Hype

Now we need to talk about autophagy.

Autophagy is pronounced aw-TAH-fuh-jee.

It is the bodys internal cleanup and recycling process. It helps break down damaged cellular parts and reuse materials.

The word basically means self-eating,which sounds horrifying, but it is actually a normal and helpful process.

Think of autophagy as the CELLULAR housekeeping.

Old parts get cleaned up.

Damaged pieces get broken down.

Resources get recycled.

Fasting may influence some of these cleanup pathways, and that is one reason people are so interested in fasting for longevity and cellular health.

But this is also one of the places where wellness culture can get a little too confident.

You may hear someone say,At exactly sixteen hours, autophagy begins.

As if your cells punch a time clock.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached hour sixteen. Please welcome the cellular Roomba

The body is much more complex than that.

So here is the grounded takeaway:

Fasting may encourage certain cellular cleanup processes, but we do not need to obsess over the exact hour.

The goal is rhythm and wisdom, not turning your body into a science project you monitor every six minutes.

## Appetite Awareness

One of the most practical benefits of intermittent fasting is appetite awareness.

Fasting can reveal the difference between true hunger, habit hunger, and emotional hunger.

True hunger usually builds gradually. It feels physical. Your body is asking for nourishment.

Habit hunger sounds more like, “It is 9:15 p.m., and I always eat something crunchy while watching Dateline.”

Emotional hunger often feels urgent and specific. It may come with stress, sadness, loneliness, or fatigue.

And I want to say this gently: emotional eating is often an attempt to regulate. It is the body trying to self soothe.

Food is comforting. God made food pleasurable. Meals are meant to be received with gratitude. Taste is a gift. Shared meals are sacred in their own way.

But if food has become the main way we comfort every ache, fasting may reveal that.

Sometimes fasting shows us, “I am tired.” “I am lonely.” “I am anxious.” “I have been moving too fast to notice my needs.”

Or it may show us, “I am genuinely hungry, and I have been ignoring my body for too long.”

That matters because some of us do not need more restriction. We need restoration: steady meals, protein, minerals, permission to eat, and safety in the body.

So fasting can reveal any of thee patterns, but we need the opportunity and body wisdom to interpret what we are seeing.

If you are sleeping poorly, under-eating, over-caffeinated, dealing with chronic illness, recovering from burnout, postpartum, anxious, or living in survival mode, longer fasts may be too much.

Your body may need nourishment before restraint.

Sometimes the faithful thing is fasting.

Sometimes the faithful thing is eating breakfast.

Sometimes the faithful thing is turning off your phone and going to bed.

Sometimes the faithful thing is making eggs instead of calling coffee a meal.

God is not confused by your season. He knows when we need discipline, and He knows when we need green pastures.

Psalm 23 says, “He restores my soul.” It does not say He drives us into exhaustion and calls it holiness.

Fasting should produce clarity, humility, and freedom. If it produces obsession, pride, punishment, or panic, something needs adjusting.

## When Modern Fasting Meets Biblical Fasting

Now let’s pivot.

Intermittent fasting may be trendy, but fasting itself has been around for thousands of years. Long before fasting had apps, glucose monitors, eating-window trackers, and before-and-after pictures, fasting was a spiritual practice.

People fasted in Scripture during grief, repentance, discernment, worship, and prayer.

Moses fasted. David fasted. Esther called for a fast. Daniel fasted. Jesus fasted. The early church fasted.

And this is where the comparison becomes powerful.

Intermittent fasting asks: What happens when the body gets a break from constant food?

Spiritual fasting asks: What happens when the heart seeks God with all of itself and lays down a daily comfort?

Intermittent fasting may reveal physical hunger patterns.

Spiritual fasting reveals heart hunger.

Intermittent fasting may give digestion space to rest.

Spiritual fasting gives prayer space to rise.

and can reveal spiritual dependence.

And both require wisdom because both can be misused.

Intermittent fasting can turn into body control.

Spiritual fasting can turn into religious performance.

The issue is the posture of our hearts.

Are we seeking healing or control?

Are we making space or chasing status?

Are we listening to the body or overriding it?

Are we drawing near to God or checking a holy box?

That is the deeper work. And that deeper work is where growth happens.

## Spiritual Fasting Is Wholehearted Seeking

The more I studied spiritual fasting, the more I realized how different it is from the way our culture talks about fasting.

Modern intermittent fasting often asks:

How long can I go without food?

What is my eating window?

What happens to blood sugar, fat burning, and cellular cleanup?

Those are valid questions. The body matters.

But biblical fasting asks a deeper question:

What am I seeking with my whole heart?

That brought me back to that verse in Jeremiah, God tells His people that when they seek Him with all their heart, He will be found by them.

And that phrase — all your heart — is where fasting began to make more sense to me.

Fasting is one way of saying, “Lord, I am bringing more than words into this prayer. I am bringing my body, my appetite, my need, my weakness, and my hunger.”

Arthur Wallis describes fasting as setting aside legitimate bodily appetite so a person can concentrate on prayer.

That does not mean food is bad. Food is a gift. Appetite is part of God’s design.

But there are moments when we voluntarily set aside even a good thing to seek the better thing.

And I love that distinction.

Fasting is not hating the body. Fasting is using the body as part of prayer. It is a willingness to sacrifice comfort while earnestly seeking God.

It is saying, “God, I mean business here. I am asking. I am waiting. I am making room.”

Wallis also makes a practical point that really comforted me: most people cannot pray every single minute of even a short fast.

I had been hung up on that. How in the world could I pray the whole time, even for half a day?

I pictured spiritual fasting as an intensely holy person kneeling for six straight hours, with a glow around their head, and no laundry piles nearby waiting to be folded.

Meanwhile, I am wondering who left dirty socks in the pantry and praying, “Jesus, take the wheel.” How can I BE that holy person kneeling in prayer for 12 hours out of a day?

But Wallis points out that a fast is not fruitless just because every moment is not spent in active prayer.

The fast itself becomes a posture.

There may be focused prayer, Scripture reading, journaling, quiet, even normal responsibilities, and hunger that keeps turning your heart back toward God.

That hunger becomes a bell:

Lord, I am seeking You.

Lord, I need You.

Lord, show me what You want me to see.

Lord, I do not want to live on bread alone.

That is different from diet-culture fasting.

Diet culture says, “Ignore your hunger so you can control your body.”

Spiritual fasting says, “Notice your hunger and let it lead you back to God.”

That is a completely different spirit.

## When Fasting Is a Response, Not a Checkbox

One thing that struck me in *God’s Chosen Fast* was how much fasting is tied to the condition of the heart.

Spiritual fasting is not supposed to become a routine checkbox.

It is not, “Every Monday I fast, every Tuesday I feel superior, and every Wednesday I tell everyone how disciplined I am.”

That misses the motive completely.

Much like prayer, fasting has to involve the heart. It may come from a deep burden, a need for repentance, a longing for clarity, a spiritual heaviness, a new task you feel unprepared for, or a sense that God is inviting you to set something aside so you can seek Him more fully.

Wallis describes fasting as something we inquire of God about when we are brought low, longing for something deeper, or facing a calling bigger than our strength.

That language stayed with me. I wrote it on a sticky note above my desk because it made fasting feel less like a rule and more like a response.

Less like a wellness challenge.

More like surrender.

Because anything can become legalistic if the heart gets lost: prayer, Bible reading, healthy eating, natural living, and yes, fasting.

So the question is not just, “Did I fast?”

The better question is, “Did this draw me closer to God?”

Did it soften my heart?

Did it increase humility?

Did it awaken prayer?

Did it help me seek God with all my heart?

## Isaiah 58 and the Heart of Fasting

One of the most important passages on fasting is Isaiah 58.

In that chapter, the people are fasting, but God confronts them. Their outward religious practice is disconnected from mercy, justice, humility, and compassion.

They are going through the motions, but their hearts are still hard.

God says the fast He chooses is connected to loosening bonds, setting the oppressed free, sharing bread with the hungry, bringing the poor into the house, clothing the naked, and caring for people.

That was a very sobering passage.

Because it means we can skip the meal and completely miss the meaning.

We can have an empty stomach and a full ego.

How many people do we encounter that are disciplined and can still be incredibly unkind.

We can call something spiritual when it is really control wearing church clothes every Sunday morning..

So spiritual fasting needs a heart check:

Is this making me more humble, compassionate, prayerful, surrendered, aware of God, and loving toward the people in front of me?

If fasting makes me proud, harsh, or spiritually smug, I may need to go eat something and repent.

And I say that with total love.

Maybe also with a bowl of mashed potatoes.

## What Hunger Reveals

When we remove the thing we normally reach for, something underneath often rises.

Irritability. Fear. Sadness. Restlessness. Control. Loneliness. Boredom. Anger. Grief.

Those things are not automatically problems. They are signals, invitations, and places where God may want to meet us.

Sometimes we think we are hungry for food, but we are hungry for peace.

Sometimes we think we need a snack, but we need sleep.

Or we think we need distraction, but we need prayer.

Sometimes we think we need control, but we need to surrender.

Fasting can bring those things to the surface. Its a remarkable experience. You don't know what will move in you.

And here is the grace: God already knows what is there.

He is not shocked by your hunger. He is not scandalized by your cravings. He knows the stories underneath our coping patterns.

Fasting gives us a chance to notice what He already sees and bring it to Him with humility.

That is where healing begins.

## Jesus, Bread, and Dependence

Man does not live by bread alone.

Again, bread is good.

God gave bread.

Jesus fed people bread.

Jesus is the Bread of Life.

So the message is not that food is bad.

The message is that food is not ultimate.

Even physical nourishment, as important as it is, is not the deepest source of life.

We live by the Word of God.

Spiritual fasting helps us remember that.

I feel hunger, and I bring that hunger to You.

## The Modern Problem of Constant Consumption

This may be one of the most important reasons fasting matters today.

We are constantly consuming, and I do not just mean food.

We consume content before our feet hit the floor. We consume news before we have prayed. We consume opinions before we have heard our own thoughts. We consume comparison before breakfast. We consume fear and call it being informed.

Our bodies are full.

Our minds are full.

Our calendars are full.

Our shopping carts are full.

And our souls may still feel empty.

That is why fasting is so countercultural.

Fasting says, “I can pause.”

“I can be uncomfortable and still be held.”

In a world of instant gratification, fasting teaches holy patience.

In a world of constant noise, fasting teaches quiet.

In a world of self-reliance, fasting teaches dependence.

Maybe that is why fasting feels so hard. It touches the places where we are used to reaching for to comfort ourselves.

## Fasting From More Than Food

You may need a different kind of fast.

Maybe you fast from social media, stepping on the scale, negative self-talk, shopping, background noise, complaining, checking your phone every other minute, hurry, or filling every quiet moment.

The question is: what has too much access to your attention?

What are you reaching for before you reach for God?

What are you using to numb what needs to be healed?

What are you consuming that is consuming you?

Whew. Am I stepping on anyone else’s toes but my own?

That is where spiritual fasting becomes very practical.

It is not just about food.

It is about surrender.

## Practicing Intermittent Fasting Gently

If you are medically safe to fast and feel drawn to try intermittent fasting for health, begin gently.

The lowest-drama option is an overnight fast:

Finish dinner.

Close the kitchen.

Hydrate.

Go to bed.

Eat a nourishing breakfast.

That might be twelve hours, like dinner at 7 p.m. and breakfast at 7 a.m. Simple is often where healing starts.

Then pay attention.

How is your energy, mood, sleep, digestion, and stress?

When you do eat, nourish your body. Protein, minerals, fiber, healthy fats, and enough food matter.

Fasting is not a free pass to under-eat and call it discipline. Your hormones, muscles, nervous system, brain, and detox pathways all need building blocks.

If fasting leaves you depleted, shaky, anxious, obsessive, or ravenous, that is information.

Listen to it.

The goal is a body that feels supported, not conquered.

## Practicing Spiritual Fasting Gently

For spiritual fasting, start with prayer before you start with a plan.

Ask:

Lord, are You inviting me into a fast?

What kind of fast?

For what purpose?

What should I do with the space?

What are You asking me to lay down or receive?

You might fast one meal and use that time for prayer. And I do mean use the time. Skipping lunch while answering emails may reduce food intake, but it may not create spiritual space.

Maybe read a Psalm.

Maybe journal:

What am I hungry for?

What do I keep consuming when I feel overwhelmed?

Where am I depending on something more than God?

Maybe just sit quietly.

For some of us, sitting quietly may be the hardest fast of all because when the noise stops, we have to feel things.

But God meets us there.

Fasting does not need to be dramatic to be meaningful.

One meal can be holy.

One morning without your phone can be holy.

One decision to pray instead of scroll can be holy.

The power is not in the size of the fast.

The power is in the surrender.

## Comparing the Benefits Side by Side

So let’s compare these two kinds of fasting one more time.

Intermittent fasting may help the body practice rhythm.

Spiritual fasting helps the soul practice dependence.

Intermittent fasting may give digestion a pause.

Spiritual fasting may give prayer more space.

Intermittent fasting may reveal habit hunger.

Spiritual fasting may reveal heart hunger.

Intermittent fasting may help us notice how often we eat without thinking.

Spiritual fasting may help us notice how often we consume without praying. Ouch.

And both can teach us something beautiful when they are guided by wisdom.

The body and spirit are deeply connected.

God made us whole.

So it makes sense that a practice involving the body can also touch the soul.

## Fasting and Freedom

The goal of fasting is freedom.

Freedom from constant appetite.

Freedom from constant distraction.

Freedom from needing every desire satisfied immediately.

Freedom from using food, noise, shopping, scrolling, or busyness to avoid what needs healing.

Freedom to eat with gratitude.

Freedom to hear God more clearly.

Freedom to say, “This desire is real, but it does not rule me.”

Our culture teaches immediate satisfaction:

Hungry? Eat.

Bored? Scroll.

Sad? Shop.

Anxious? Research.

Tired? Caffeinate.

Uncomfortable? Escape.

Fasting interrupts that pattern. It teaches us that we can feel desire without being mastered by it.

It is not just a health practice.

It is spiritual formation.

## Closing Reflection

So maybe fasting is less about proving how strong we are and more about admitting how deeply we need God.

That is not weakness.

That is worship.

Every breath is grace.

Every meal is provision.

Every hunger cue is communication.

The body was designed with rhythms: eating and resting, receiving and releasing, hunger and fullness, work and sleep.

And the soul was designed for God.

So as you think about fasting, do not begin with pressure. Fasting again, is a state of the heart, not meant to be a forced scheduled commitment.

Begin with prayer.

Ask the Lord:

What am I consuming that is consuming me?

Where do I need rhythm?

Where do I need rest?

Where do I need surrender?

Where do I need nourishment?

Where do I need freedom?

Maybe your next faithful step is a simple overnight fast.

Maybe it is one meal set aside for prayer.

Maybe it is a week without social media.

Maybe it is closing the kitchen after dinner and letting your body sleep.

Maybe it is turning off the TV and sitting with God long enough to feel what is really there.

Whatever He is inviting you into, let it be led by wisdom.

Because fasting may empty the stomach for a moment, but God fills what nothing else can.

In a world that keeps telling us to consume more, maybe one of the most healing things we can do is make space:

Space for the body to rest, for our heart to soften, for prayer to rise out of the groans of our hearts.

And a Space for God to remind us:

He is our daily bread.

He is our living water.

He is the One who satisfies the deepest hunger of the soul.

As you go into this week, I want to leave you with this:

you do not have to prove your spirituality by doing something extreme.

Sometimes the most faithful next step is simply asking, “Lord, what am I consuming that is consuming me?”

Whatever He brings to mind, bring it to Him gently.

Healing is not just about what we remove.

It is about Who or what we make room for.

So take one small, faithful step this week.

Create a little space.

Listen to your body.

Listen for the Lord.

your body was designed with rhythm, your soul was designed for God, and you do not have to figure it all out in one day.

Sometimes, the better begins with making room — even if that means clearing the calendar by one commitment.

Thanks so much for spending this time with me on Becoming Natural.

If this episode helped you, share it with a friend who might be in the same boat: trying to understand fasting with both wisdom and faith, with modern and ancient eyes, and one baby step at a time.

I hope you have a great week.