Once you have a rough idea of how long you spend on these services, replace this time with spending valuable and quality time with the Lord. Examine yourself and see how much time you spend on these digital services and take note of the amount of minutes or hours that you spend on these services. We could talk to Him in prayer and hear back from Him through reading the Bible. Therefore, we should try to fast from social media, the internet, or watching television for 21 days and spend the time that we would normally spend doing these things with God instead. Now, if we looked at social media, watching television, and surfing the internet, we would quickly realize we spend the majority of our day on one of these services. Most people do not spend much time eating their meals - anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for a meal is reasonable. Rather than choosing to focus on participating in the Daniel Fast or any other fast, it would be advisable for Christians to fast from other things that take up the majority of our day. Fasting can lead to overly rigid behaviors around food, development of eating disorders, dehydration, and malnutrition. While a person can survive many days without water and many weeks without food, it is not advisable for a person to fast for any and every reason. There are many dangers of fasting from food and/or water. Ask yourself, “Am I fasting to grow closer to God?” “Am I fasting to lose weight?” “Am I fasting to appear religious to others?” It is important to be honest with how we answer these questions.
This is the overall idea of the Daniel Fast however, when one decides to participate in a fast, the individual needs to examine their motives. Promoters of the Daniel Fast say participants have to follow this fast for 21 days in order to have a deeper relationship with the Lord. As stated by the Christian Broadcasting Network, “Participating in a Daniel Fast requires eliminating commonly enjoyed foods for twenty-one days as an act of worship and of consecrating oneself to God.”Īllowed foods consist of vegetables, fruits, seeds, beans, and oils however, foods that are off-limits include dairy, meat, sugar/sweeteners, yeast, and all processed foods (Ibid.). The Daniel Fast according to the modern-day includes restrictions and limiting multiple food groups for many days. With that being said, we can wonder whether or not we as Christians should emulate the Daniel Fast? What Is the Significance of Fasting? Rather, Daniel’s fast was done out of a heart of pure devotion to God. The Daniel Fast is not something that should be considered part of America’s diet-culture because it is not a diet with the goal to lose weight or alter your appearance. With modern forms of diets coming on the scene including the Mediterranean diet, the Keto diet, and Paleo, many people believe the “Daniel Fast” is another diet craze trend. In his first fast, Daniel only ate vegetables and for his second fast, he ceased eating meat, wine, or other delicacies for three weeks ( Daniel 1:8-14, 10:3). In the Book of Daniel, Daniel participated in two fasts.
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