One of the best decisions you will ever make in your walk with God is to build a regular habit of fasting. While I do not believe that fasting is in any way a requirement to salvation or to becoming a "better Christian" it's something that more and more believers should be taking more seriously.
Fasting has been around longer than many other spiritual disciplines, and has been practiced for millennia. That in itself should show us why we should fast. If people have been fasting for a very long time, it must mean that it's really important. And indeed fasting is important for one ultimate reason - fasting works.
Fasting works in many ways and through different means, but it works. It helps us get more in tune with God, it complements prayer, it makes our faith stronger and builds up church communities. Fasting works, but reality is it does not work all of the time. Fasting fails to work when we miss the point of fasting.
Fasting is not a dead ritual that we keep for the sake of doing it. It is instead a deliberate effort we make to deny ours physical needs (the most common being food) to give way to the answering of spiritual needs. It's not just skipping meals to show other Christians how faithful we can be. Matthew 6:16 tells us, "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward."
Fasting has very little to do with our faithfulness and has more to do with God's faithfulness. He gives us the strength to fast and the results of fasting.
Fasting is also not about wringing God's arm to do things that we want Him to do. God is not a genie in a bottle who will simply do things for us because we ask Him to. He has higher ways and better plans for us. Fasting is instead a time for us to be more sensitive to God's voice and move so we can see more of His will in our lives. 1 John 5:14 tells us, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us."
Fasting was never meant to be seen as a requirement or a quick fix, but a way for us to gain better ground and perspective so that we start to see God move not because of what we do, but because of who He is. God is a promise keeper who honors acts of faith and devotion such as fasting, and a good God who wants to bless you according to His grace. Just like a parent who sees a child trying to do the dishes or carry something heavy for mom, how can He not be moved?
No Christian is obliged to fast, but if we really knew the value in it and how God is pleased by it, we will be compelled to fast not because we have to but simply because we want to.
