How to Draw Closer to God With a Sincere Heart (Matthew 6:16–18): What Does the Bible Say About Fasting?

There is something quietly countercultural about the way Jesus talks about fasting. He doesn’t say if you fast — he says when you fast. He assumes it’s part of your life, as natural as prayer, as steady as giving. That assumption alone is worth sitting with this morning.

But then he does something unexpected. He doesn’t give you a fasting schedule or a list of approved foods to skip. He talks about your face. He talks about whether you look miserable in public. He’s concerned, it turns out, not with the mechanics of your fast but with the motive behind it.

The hypocrites he describes weren’t fasting poorly — they were fasting publicly. They wanted the hollow reward of being seen, of being admired for their discipline. And Jesus says plainly: that admiration is all they will get. The crowd’s nod of approval is a thin, temporary thing. It doesn’t feed the soul.

“Anoint your head, and wash your face” — in other words, go about your day looking like yourself. Let your fasting be invisible to the people around you. Not because secrecy is the point, but because God is the point. The fast isn’t a signal to the world. It’s a turning of your whole self toward your Father.

There is something deeply freeing in this. You don’t have to announce your fast to make it count. You don’t have to perform hunger to make God notice. He already sees. He sees the quiet sacrifice of a skipped meal. He sees the growl in your stomach you offered up without fanfare. He sees the prayer you whispered instead of the lunch you set aside. As Isaiah 58 reminds us, the fast God honors is one that flows from a heart oriented toward him and others — not one dressed up for display.

If fasting and prayer feel unfamiliar or even intimidating to you, that’s okay. You don’t have to start grand. A single skipped meal, offered intentionally to God, is a beginning. The discipline isn’t about proving something to yourself or anyone else. It’s about creating a little space — a hollow of hunger — and letting God fill it.

Your Father, Jesus says, “who sees in secret, will reward you.” That reward may not look dramatic. It might feel like clarity in a confused season, or a quiet nearness when you expected to feel alone. It might simply be the slow, steady work of a soul learning to want God more than it wants comfort. That is no small thing.