Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer

Fasting…is a way of saying, from time to time, that having more of the Giver surpasses having the gift. (50)

I was sleeping in Laos when Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025—just a week ago as of this writing. I was sitting at breakfast completely heartbroken. I had listened to Kirk before but not faithfully, so it wasn’t fandom that broke me. It was the violence—the now-obvious incessant violence—of such a wicked element in American society that kills someone who just wanted to talk, and a believer no less.

I couldn’t finish that breakfast. Instead, as I sat at the table in the restaurant lobby, I joined my pastor’s communication on the event with our church by calling for change—a change that begins with us through a time of fasting and prayer. Fasting is not normal for Baptists, sadly, but we all know it’s needed. If we weren’t willing to take a simple personal step like this to draw near to God, then how can we truly expect this nation ever to turn from its wickedness?

Apart from my own Bible reading and praying during the fast, I wanted to supplement my focus with books on the topic. I’m so glad I began with this, A Hunger for God, by John Piper, because he focused not on the “How to” by the “Why” of fasting, which is precisely what I needed. As David Platt and Francis Chan write in the Foreword to the 2013 edition, “Fasting is the means by which we say to God, ‘More than our stomachs want food, our souls want you.’” (8) [see Psalm 63:1-5]

This review will share my thoughts and some great quotes in a chapter-by-chapter way. It’s a summary, sure, but I hope it excites you to read the book for yourself—particularly Chapter 7: “Fasting for the Little Ones,” the most pertinent in the book.

Introduction

From Piper’s Introduction, I learned three very important things. First, fasting is equally internal and external. It’s internal, because it’s about putting my dependence back on God and away from the gifts He gives. It’s also external, because it’s bout seeking His intervention in my circumstances.

Second, just as with Abraham’s almost-sacrifice Isaac, we too must face our own willingness to give up all for Him. We do so, not because the things we give up are evil in themselves, but because we have somehow turned them into idolatry.

Third, while fasting, we must anticipate the revealing of our other mental/emotional weaknesses, because in hunger, they most definitely will come out—not because we’re hungry but because we’ve removed the go-to distraction that has long kept them buried. Piper quotes Richard Foster:

David said, “I humbled my soul with fasting” [Psalm 35:13]. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear—if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first, we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger. And then, we know that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ. (21)

Chapter 1: Is Fasting Christian?

Ultimately, Piper’s answer to this question is Yes—”It is if it comes from confidence in Christ and is sustained by the power of Christ and aims at the glory of Christ.” (54) He adds the caveat, though, that this fast is distinct from the old Jewish form of fasting.

Building off Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:14-17 (the old and new wineskin passage), Piper describes how Christians can and do fast, but in an entirely new way. We at once celebrate the joy of Christ‘s victory and presence of His Spirit and admit our sad yet hopeful anticipation of something far greater. He writes:

The new fasting, the Christian fasting, is a hunger for all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19), aroused by the aroma of Jesus’ love and by the taste of God’s goodness in the gospel of Christ (1 Peter 2:2–3). (48)

In this age there is an ache inside every Christian that Jesus is not here as fully and intimately and as powerfully and as gloriously as we want him to be. We hunger for so much more. That is why we fast. (43)

The aching and yearning and longing for Christ and his power that drive us to fasting are not the expression of emptiness. Need, yes. Pain, yes. Hunger for God, yes. But not emptiness. (47)

Chapter 2: Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone

In this chapter, Piper takes us to Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and testing in the wilderness, a perfect fulfillment of the illustration offered by Israel in Deuteronomy. He sets the example that man doesn’t even live by “miracle bread” alone but by the words of God. Jesus’ example prepares us to live our own lives with our focus on the Giver not just the gift, to run this race while looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Fasting is a way of revealing to ourselves and confessing to our God what is in our hearts. Where do we find our deepest satisfaction—in God or in his gifts? (66)

Chapter 3: Fasting for the Reward of the Father

From Matthew 6, Piper writers warnings about our motives in fasting, that we be careful not to do it pridefully to be praised by others but that instead we do it sincerely and for God. He also deals with the sticky question of corporate/public fasting. If we shouldn’t let others know we’re fasting, then isn’t it sin to do so? No, thankfully, as it’s the motive matters most (see Mt 5:16), a motive that says we seek God’s glory and His reward. As Piper writes:

“And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is good and right to want and to seek the reward of God in fasting. Jesus would not have offered this to us if it were defective to reach for it. I have argued for decades that seeking the reward of the Father is not sub-Christian or unloving or contrary to true virtue. (85)

Our focus in fasting must begin Godward: that His name be hallowed, His Kingdom come, and His will be done. Within this environment can we then fast over our specific requests. Piper writes: “Fast with a clear intention of being seen by God. As Jesus teaches it, fasting is an intensely Godward act. Do it toward God, who sees when others don’t.” (83)

Chapter 4: Fasting for the King’s Coming

In this chapter, Piper shows that fasting comes from our desire to see the Bridegroom again, and so it’s no surprise that fasting is a discipline we practice because we long for his coming: “’Maranatha’ was the ever-present heart cry of the early church. ‘O Lord, come!’” (95)

This desire is also tied directly to missions, because Jesus promises to come only when all the nations have heard the preaching of the Gospel. Thus, fasting should both reignite our longing to see Jesus and fire us up to share the Gospel globally. If this is the case, then our failure to fast is actually quite an indictment against the modern church. In discussing Luke 18:7-8, Piper asks:

Where in the West do Christians cry to Christ day and night that he would come and bring about justice for his elect? Where is there that kind of longing and aching for the consummation of the kingdom? (94)

The almost universal absence of regular fasting for the Lord’s return is a witness to our satisfaction with the presence of the world and the absence of the Lord. This is not the way it should be. (93)

Chapter 5: Fasting and the Course of History

Piper then takes us to Scripture passages like Acts 13 to evidence Christian fasting in action in the early church. He also points to contemporary examples of the effectiveness of fasting like in South Korea, as well as a number of historical examples like Wesley, Edward’s, Brained, Shepard, Mather.

He closes, though, by warning us against thinking that fasting is the magic bullet to solve all of our ills. But simply because it can’t sway God’s pre-ordained will, that should not deter us from doing it—and the same argument could be made for prayer in general (see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane).

It would be a great mistake to think that the awakening of desire for the Bridegroom would produce a wave of monastic withdrawal into the fasting and prayer of passive waiting. That is not what the awakening of desire for Christ would produce. It would produce a radical, new commitment to complete the task of world evangelization, no matter what the cost. And fasting would not become a pacifistic discipline for private hopes, but a fearsome missionary weapon in the fight of faith. The reason I say this is simple. If we really long for Christ to return and the kingdom to come, then we will pour our lives into completing the prerequisite to his coming, namely, Matthew 24:14. (103)

Chapter 6 – Finding His in the Garden of Pain

Here, Piper dissects the beauty of Isaiah 58 and the ministry of Jesus to describe the type of fast God desires:

There is something very close to Jesus’ heart in Isaiah 58. You can hear it coming out in Jesus’ words in Luke 4:18 … and in Matthew 25:35–36 … and John 7:38 … The burden of Isaiah 58 pervades the ministry of Jesus—and more and more it should pervade our ministry as well. (145)

He also includes a stark warning that we “Beware Loving Loving God Rather Than Loving God” (146):

God is mercifully warning us against the danger of substituting religious disciplines for righteous living. Oh, how we need to ponder these things. Hypocrisy is a terrible blight on the worship of God… The only authentic fasting is fasting that includes a spiritual attack against our own sin… Fasting that is not aimed at starving sin while feasting on God is self-deluded. (149-150)

He ends the chapter with seven ways from Isaiah 58 that we minister and seven promises God gives us “as a personal call on my own life and as a mandate for the church.” (157) These are as follows:

Seven Ways We Minister

• First, God prescribes that we set people free. (157)
• Second, God prescribes that we feed the hungry. (159)
• Third, God prescribes that we house the homeless… The good Samaritan did not say, “One interrupted day will make very little difference in the problem of chronic violence in this region.” (161)
• Fourth, God prescribes that we clothe the naked. (163)
• Fifth, he prescribes that we be sympathetic, that we feel what others feel because we have the same flesh as they do (163)
• Sixth, God prescribes that we put away gestures and words that show raw contempt for other people. (164)
• Finally, the Lord prescribes that we not just give food, but give ourselves—our souls—and not just to satisfy the stomach of the poor, but the soul of the afflicted. (165)

Seven Rewards God Promises

• The first promise is that the darkness in your life will become light. (166)
• Second, God promises that he will give you physical strengthening. (167)
• Third, God will be in front of us and behind us and in the midst of us with righteousness and glory. (167)
• Fourth, God promises to guide us continually. (169)
• Fifth, he will satisfy your soul. (169)
• Sixth, God will make you a watered garden with springs that do not fail. (170)
• Finally, if we give ourselves to the poor, God will restore the ruins of his city—and his people. (171)

Chapter 7 – Fasting for the Little Ones

Piper closes his book with the most timely chapter of all, focusing on both the later writings of Francis Schaeffer and the book of Ezra. Although it is emphasizes abortion, it’s really a template for any manor social ill the Church might face (like domestic terrorism, etc.).

In the flood of the loss of humanness in our age—including the flow from abortion-on-demand to infanticide and on to euthanasia—the only thing that can stem this tide is the certainty of the absolute uniqueness and value of people. And the only thing which gives us that is the knowledge that people are made in the image of God. We have no other final protection. (176)

Piper notes that fasting and prayer is the only recourse we have against America’s false worldview in all its social ills.

The humanist worldview pervading American culture is so intractable that we are utterly dependent on God to resist and reform. Faithful reasoning, persuasive writing, social activism, and political engagement all have their place. But unless the sovereign God moves on darkened minds (like he did on Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes), the very best reasoning and action will be taken captive and turned upside down. (191)

He includes this powerful prayer that makes me want to shout this book from the rooftops—and of course post it on social media:

We are not able to heal the endless wounds of godless ideologies and their bloody deeds. But, O God, you are able! And we turn from reliance on ourselves to you. And we cry out to you and plead that for the sake of your name, and for the sake of your glory, and for the advancement of your saving purpose in the world, and for the demonstration of your wisdom and your power and your authority over all things, and for the sway of your Truth and the relief of the poor and the helpless, act, O God. (191)

Conclusion

Piper includes his own conclusion and appendices which includes quotes and notes, but I’ll just quote one favorite concluding line:

The final answer is that God rewards fasting because fasting expresses the cry of the heart that nothing on the earth can satisfy our souls besides God. (201)

This was a fantastic book for me to read this week, and I highly encourage you to get a copy as well—especially if you’re ever planning a spiritual fast. There’s not time like the present to draw nearer to God through Christ and to shift your hunger for wonderful gifts like food to the Giver of all good things.

©2025 E.T.

Read More from John Piper:

• Desiring God (1986)
• A Hunger for God (1996)
• Don’t Waste Your Life (2003)
• Jesus The Only Way to God (2010)
• A Holy Ambition (2011)