What would it actually feel like to commit to a full 40-day fast from food, phone, whatever it is. Phone feels almost impossible as a student right now though (everything runs through it, assignments, communication, all that).
Has anyone fasted for 40 days like Jesus?
No, never a full 40 days with zero food. I’d be careful about trying that without medical supervision.
What I did was a 40-day Lent fast: no social media and one simple meal a day (see this). I was irritable and kept grabbing my phone out of pure muscle memory.
Fast from the apps that eat your time, not the phone itself. I deleted Instagram and TikTok, turned off every notification except texts and calls, and moved my Bible app into the spot where Instagram used to sit on my home screen. You can still submit assignments and text your mom, but you’re not doom-scrolling at 1am.
Around day ten I started praying in the moments I used to fill with scrolling, like waiting in line at the drugstore or waiting for class to start.
Jesus fasted in the wilderness right before starting his ministry. That was preparation for something specific, so keep that in mind before trying to copy the 40 days exactly.
No, you don’t need to go 40 days. Some Christians have done 40-day fasts, but it’s not required and you shouldn’t try it without a doctor anyway. Fasting is for focusing on prayer and depending on God instead of trying to hit some big number.
As a student, you can keep your phone for schoolwork and important calls but skip the scrolling and apps outside certain hours. Setting those limits can show you your habits just as well as ditching the phone entirely.
Years ago a couple of people at my church said they’d gone forty days on water. I started alongside them and quit on day nine, once it had turned into a score I was keeping with myself.
Those nine days were split down the middle. Mornings were clear and focused, but afternoons brought a dull ache and a short fuse. I was a student at the time too. I locked my phone in a drawer between classes for a few days once. Missed a study group message and spent the rest of the experiment borrowing other people’s phones and feeling behind.
Stopping once a fast turns into a score you’re keeping with yourself is the most spiritual call anyone can make.
Putting your Bible app where Instagram used to be is smart. Now that muscle memory points you toward prayer instead. I did a prayer app, and every automatic tap showed me how often I grabbed my phone for distraction before I ever thought about praying.
Those empty moments that scrolling used to fill opened up, and that’s when the real fast started for you. You went into this with an actual purpose instead of picking forty days because it’s a biblical number.
When I set scrolling hours, it was like damming a creek and suddenly seeing how strong the current had been. Turns out my thumb drifted toward those apps constantly, and I only noticed once the boundary was there to catch it.
A tree grows by sinking roots where the water is, and the depending-on-God piece is the root system. A small, honest fast can reach deeper than 40 days done for the wrong reasons.
My dad and brother both did the full 40 days. It wasn’t a total fast. Juice and broth kept them going.
Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline has a solid chapter on fasting that covers how to approach the longer ones safely.
There’s an old proverb: “A man who fasts to prove his strength proves only his pride.” Before going all in on forty days, ask why you feel pulled toward it. The number doesn’t matter to God.
The water thing makes or breaks it. I fasted 11 days in January but you’ve got to drink every couple hours or you’ll hit a wall.
I’d add salt or electrolytes from the start. I waited until day 10 when I was already feeling weak, and that was a mistake.
I did a 40-day fast on apple cider once. No dramatic changes. But by day 38 my desire for worldly things had faded away.
The Moses parallel is what makes Jesus’ 40 days click for me. He’s doing a wilderness remix. This time the true Israelite passes the test where the OG crew fumbled back in the desert.
The foodless 40 is narrative theology, showing Jesus as the faithful representative Israel couldn’t be.
A lot of people take this on during Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. I haven’t done the full stretch myself, but I know folks who are right in the middle of it now.
I did a 7-day water fast and had incredible clarity. Catholic or Orthodox Lent plans are way more sustainable, though still pretty rigorous, since they have you eat certain amounts on certain days instead of nothing at all.
Jesus also walked on water and healed the sick, so maybe his forty days weren’t meant as a benchmark for the rest of us. Plenty of pastors have done water-only fasts, but they’d be the first to tell you they’re not Jesus.
Our bodies were built to handle fasting for days, even weeks. Most of us have never used that muscle because food is everywhere now.
But the 40-day thing is a different animal. You’d want to work up to it slowly and only with a doctor keeping an eye on things.
My roommate sophomore year started an extended food fast during midterms. She was sliding back into an eating disorder she’d never told anyone at church about. She kept calling it devotion, but she was tracking every bite she didn’t need.
It took a pastor to help her see that God wasn’t asking that of her.
It’s okay to leave the food fast off the table entirely. Or try something like Daniel’s partial fast in Daniel 10, where he went three weeks without meat or wine.
Whatever you choose, let one trusted friend or mentor know so you’re not carrying it alone.
Isaiah 58 lit me up. God describes the fast he wants as sharing your bread with the hungry and freeing the oppressed, or bringing the poor into your home.
Now when I skip lunch on Fridays, I drop that money at the campus food pantry, and my growling stomach feels like praise. Even a broke student can do that one.
Your body isn’t an obstacle to holiness. God entrusted it to your care.
A 40-day food fast isn’t something to improvise. Please talk with a doctor before anything extended. Jumping straight back into normal meals after a long fast can be physically risky.
Grandma’s cooking resistance level: 0/10. That alone keeps me from attempting 40 days lol.
Curiosity about trying it someday is still 8/10 though. Once I’m fully independent and can control my own kitchen, maybe then.