Fasting is to voluntarily go without food and water for an amount of time.  And it doesn’t always have a religious meaning.  To breakfast is to break the fast of the night before.  Often, doctors, before surgery, ask patients to come fasting – with an empty stomach.  Fasting for a religious purpose, likewise, has the same physical meaning – you go without food and drink.  But the objective is different.

Religious fasting has been practiced for centuries — in the Bible, fasting was a way for the Lord’s people to humble themselves before the Lord and increase their ability to receive blessings.  Today, Mormons practice the fast to receive spiritual strength.

Fasting in Mormonism typically means to go without food or drink for two meals, encompassing a period of about 24 hours.  Although one Sunday each month is set aside as ‘fast Sunday,’ Mormons can fast at any time.  A period of fasting should also be a period of purposeful, fervent prayer.  Prayer gives the fast purpose – as it is commonly said in the Mormon Church, fasting without purpose is just going hungry.  These purposes can be of many kinds. 

Mormons might fast for guidance in an important decision, or for an understanding of a difficult doctrine or life event that they do not understand.  Or they might fast to relieve mourning, fast for increased strength to overcome a temptation, weakness, or destructive habit.  A Mormon missionary, or a Mormon member with the missionary spirit, might fast to find people searching for the truth he or she has to offer them.  Mormons might fast that a loved one recover from their illness or be supported in a trying time.  And they might fast for a deeper sensitivity and closeness to God.
 
These represent a small handful of purposes.  Fasting is tightly bound to prayer.  What one can pray for, one can fast for – and the purposes are, really, endless.

Fast Sunday, to return to that, is the day when most Mormon members fast.  Another aspect of Fast Sunday, beyond the fast itself, is the “fast offering.”  A fast offering represents the amount of money (although it can be more) that the person would’ve spent on food, that day, if they hadn’t been fasting.  The offering is collected for the use of the poor. 

Another aspect of Fast Sunday is a special church meeting called “Fast and Testimony meeting.”  This meeting is an opportunity to stand up in front of the congregation and bear one’s testimony.  A testimony is one’s deepest religious convictions.  To bear one’s testimony is to share these convictions with others.  Although this Fast Sunday meeting is a structured time to share testimonies, it’s a Mormon belief that testimonies should always be kept strong and shareable for any time.  Mormon missionaries, especially, are always prepared to bear testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Fasting is believed to help strengthen testimony – both through having the opportunity to share and because fasting is such a spiritual experience if done with focus.

Fasting, on Fast Sunday or not, should be a time of religious study, of service, of gratitude for what God has given and what will yet give.  The Mormon books of scripture (the Book of Mormon, the Bible, the Pearl of Great Price, the Doctrine and Covenants) should be read with the same sense of purpose that informs the fast.  The fast offering is a donation of money – but service is a donation of time and love and fasting is a wonderful time to perform service.  And although fasting is a form of mild physical deprivation, it should be a time of gratitude to God – for the opportunity to come closer to Him, for the blessings He promises when people pray and fast with intent, for the blessings He has already given.