Fasting When You Can't Fast

The devotional told me to fast. It was the takeaway at the bottom of the day’s reading, the line I was supposed to carry with me. “Maintain a close walk with Jesus, including fasting and prayer.”

I’ve heard a lot about fasting over the years. I’ve never been sure how to apply it to me. Because I can’t fast.

I live on liquid nutrition. My body needs constant, careful management. Food restriction isn’t a spiritual discipline for me. It’s a medical risk.

So I’ve spent a long time feeling like I was missing something. Like my walk with God was somehow less complete because this one practice wasn’t available to me. I don’t think that’s true anymore.

The Point Was Never the Food #

Fasting is a tool, not a law. It’s never commanded as a requirement. It’s always voluntary, always tied to a purpose: mourning, repentance, seeking guidance, intensifying prayer. The food is just the most common vehicle because it’s daily and universal.

The point was never the food. The point is the posture. Fasting clears away what’s comfortable so you can feel your dependence on God more sharply.

That’s the part I can still do.

There’s a version of spirituality that treats the body as a prison, an obstacle to the spirit. I don’t believe that. My body is limited, but I’ve always believed that’s for a reason. God doesn’t ask me to make myself sicker to prove devotion. That would be the opposite of what fasting is for.

The Dependence I Already Live #

So the question isn’t “how do I fast.” It’s “how do I practice the dependence fasting teaches, in a body that can’t fast.”

Here’s the thing. I already live that dependence every day. My body already demands constant, careful attention. I already can’t just do whatever I want with food, with energy, with my schedule. That’s not a spiritual deficit. It’s a head start on the actual lesson.

Most people only taste that dependence during a fast. I live in it. I don’t have to manufacture it. I just have to name it.

What I Already Do #

I try to spend a little time reading the Bible and praying every day. That’s the close walk. That’s the discipline.

Fasting is just one vehicle for it, and it’s the one my body can’t use. I’m not missing the practice. I’m already doing the thing the practice points to.

Paul talks about his own thorn and hears God say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I’m not treating my body as a prison to escape. I’m treating it as a place where God is at work.

Showing Up #

The devotional’s point was to maintain a close walk with Jesus. I do that. Not by fasting. By showing up, in the body I have, and depending on God the way I already have to.

If keeping things simple is what lets me meet with God, then simple isn’t settling. It’s faithfulness.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. — 2 Corinthians 12:9 CSB