A 21-Day Fast: Giving Up Sugar and Discovering a Sweeter Hunger for God

Twenty-One-Day Fast

When my church announced a twenty-one-day fast beginning January 18, I briefly imagined replacing meal prep, dish duty, and grocery runs with long afternoons on the sofa, a novel in hand. A spiritual sabbatical with better lighting.

That image dissolved the moment I reread Joel 2:12:

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” (NIV)

The LORD desires our hearts and our full attention.

Anyway, a prolonged, complete fast is a fantasy in my household. The adults here exhibit hangry if dinner is five minutes late—never mind canceled.

In Matthew 6:16, Jesus didn’t say, “If you fast …” He said, “When you fast …” Which means fasting isn’t for super-Christians. It’s assumed.

Types of Fasts

There are various types of fasts. Here are a few:

• Abstaining from food, drinking only water or water and juice

• Skipping one or two meals a day

• Giving up meat, sweets, or both

• Non-food fasts, such as giving up social media or television

• Adding something, like spending an hour a day in communion with God or volunteering with a worthy organization

With so many possibilities, asking God what He’d like you to give up—or add—seems the best way to make a fast meaningful.

My Kryptonite

Since the beginning of the year, our family has carried more than our share of stress. I reached for sugar as if it were a coping strategy instead of a dessert. God impressed on me that He wanted me to bring those anxious moments to Him instead. So I chose to give up sweets for the duration of the fast.

The fast began on January 18. I’ll admit, I checked to make sure it ended before February 14. As if chocolate cares about spiritual maturity.

January 17 became a farewell tour for my sugar stash. It felt wasteful—not to mention downright disrespectful—to leave it lonely in the pantry.

Our church handed out daily devotionals for the twenty-one days, encouraging us to seek God, grow in our faith, express our faith, and strengthen others. After all, fasting without prayer and time with God is simply dieting.

Twenty-One Days and Counting

I ticked off the days like a prisoner marking a wall. Twenty-one days felt like an eternity. Would I actually make it?

Every time I turned from the pantry to prayer—which was often—something shifted. The craving didn’t vanish overnight, but it loosened its grip. In its place grew a quieter, steadier hunger.

The days passed more quickly than I expected. But on day nineteen, a thought slipped through my mind:

“You’ve gone nineteen days. Two more hardly matter. Have a bite.”

I rebuked the thought. Nineteen days was not “close enough.”

Besides, the ice cream was vanilla. It had freezer burn. And it had been in there since the previous administration.

All kidding aside, fasting isn’t about proving discipline. It’s about creating space—space where lesser comforts step aside so we can remember Who our true comfort is.

Sweet Victory

Now that sugar is back where it belongs—an occasional treat rather than a temporary stress reliever—I intend to keep it there. And if I find myself drifting back into old habits, I’ll participate in another sugar fast.

If you’ve never tried fasting, consider starting small. Skip a meal. Give up one thing that quietly owns a piece of you. Then pay attention to what rises in its place.

Blessings,

Angela

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Angela L. Gold is an encourager who shares the love of Christ in her writing. She is the author of The Lion Within and Kill Shot.