Fast

[Meerkatarmy]

Our fast has been moved to next Sunday, it will be my first fast so I am wondering how is it done? Is it no food from sunrise to sunset or what?

[Quin]

Even easier.

Skip 2:3 meals.

Along with reverence, prayer, et al.

https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-25-fasting?lang=eng

Q

[Palerider]

Our fast has been moved to next Sunday, it will be my first fast so I am wondering how is it done? Is it no food from sunrise to sunset or what?

There are those who will abstain from two meals during a fast and water. There are also some who will abstain from food and water for 24 hours. The most important part of fasting is to begin your fast and end your fast with a prayer. Otherwise your just starving yourself.

[Guest]

There are those who will abstain from two meals during a fast and water. There are also some who will abstain from food and water for 24 hours.

This is typically how we do ours. We finish dinner, say, at 6PM on Saturday. We open the fast by prayer. Then we abstain from food and water for 24 hours - skipping 2 meals (breakfast and lunch) on Sunday - to then close the fast and have dinner on Sunday at 6PM.

Church is in the afternoon, so we oftentimes wake up late on Sunday so it seems like we only skipped lunch just to make it a tad bit easier.

[Lakumi]

This is typically how we do ours. We finish dinner, say, at 6PM on Saturday. We open the fast by prayer. Then we abstain from food and water for 24 hours - skipping 2 meals (breakfast and lunch) on Sunday - to then close the fast and have dinner on Sunday at 6PM.

Church is in the afternoon, so we oftentimes wake up late on Sunday so it seems like we only skipped lunch just to make it a tad bit easier.

Food and water?

I could do the food but I would become seriously ill without drinking anything for that long

what does someone typically do in that situation?

[Guest]

Food and water?

I could do the food but I would become seriously ill without drinking anything for that long

what does someone typically do in that situation?

You drink water.

[Meerkatarmy]

Do I have to fast on the same day as every one else or could I fast on the Saturday as long as I still pay the fast offering?

[LittleWyvern]

Do I have to fast on the same day as every one else or could I fast on the Saturday as long as I still pay the fast offering?

While I believe there is a kind of strength that comes from fasting as a group, there's no restriction on when you can fast: like prayer (to which fasting is closely related), you can fast anytime you feel that it is necessary.

[onethatislazy]

The most important part of fasting.

Isaiah is giving us a key here. It is not a day to afflict your soul. There are some that think, well "i did not hunger" I did not suffer enough so it wasn't a true fast. The scriptures state fasting goes along with rejoicing!

Isaiah 58:5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8 ¶Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.

9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

This is how to make our fasts acceptable before Him. I have learned that the benefits of fasting come when we personally do what Isaiah has stated a true fast is about.

Its a day to serve our brothers and sisters.

[RMGuy]

I'm thinking about giving up fasting for lent...