When You Pray and Fast… // Matt. 6:9-18

Table Question: What is a Skill that is hard to master?

There’s a theory from a book called Outliers by a journalist named Malcolm Gladwell called the “10,000-hour rule” that basically says that to master any given skill, it will require 10,000 hours of practice.

The logic follows here: Skills develop over time, and the more practice that goes into a skill, the more it becomes refined.

Gladwell built this idea around a study of violinist at music school that found that the expert violinists, the elites, were the ones who had practiced the most. It’s the results of this study that back up phrases that my little league baseball coaches would tell us like, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

More recently, studies like this have been replicated, and while practice does influence one’s ability, it is not nearly as influential as once believed.

Another study, with a larger sample of violinists, found that the majority of the best violinists had accumulated less practice than the average amount of the good violinists.

A similar project that looked at how practice influenced athletic performance found that it only accounted for 18% of the difference in athletic success.

In looking at all of these results, a journalist from Vox.com wrote:

Practice matters, yes. But at the same time, it’s unlikely to bridge the gap between natural superstars and your average player. Which is why I find these debunkings of the 10,000-hour rule to be a complete relief. Because implied in the rule (at least, to me) is a deeply self-deprecating message: that if we fail to achieve greatness, it’s our own d*** fault. And what screw-up would forgo greatness?

All study information quoted from Brian Resnick in “The ‘10,000-hour rule’ was debunked again. That’s a relief.” (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/8/23/20828597/the-10000-hour-rule-debunked)

I think this is also a dangerous trap for Christians to fall into: the idea that if we just try harder to be a better Christian, then our effort will result in us looking more like Jesus.

We say often that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but I think we often believe that our sanctification is a reflection of our effort and not so much of what God does through the work of the Spirit in us.

Hear me, the things we do and how we spend our time are formational, but there is still so much that is out of our control when it comes to how God will continue to shape us.

Our development as Christians is very much something that is done to us by God rather than something we do on our own.

*All this to say, that as we approach this text surrounding prayer and fasting, things we normally think about as something we do, there is a theme that lays beneath the surface of these practices that allows God to shape us as we participate in them: dependence.

Main Idea: Prayer and Fasting lead us to depend on God and display that dependence through our forgiveness of others.

Keep this idea in mind as we read the passage together.

*Read Matthew 6:9-18*

1. When we pray, we confess our dependence on God (v. 9-13)

If you had to define what prayer is in one sentence, what would you say?

There are a few things to note at the very beginning of this prayer:

First, Jesus’ instruction to “pray like this”

He does not say, “pray this.” While it’s certainly ok to pray this prayer word for word, this is more-so a model for us to follow, not a mantra to be recited.

Also, we should recognize that Jesus encouraging the disciples to pray is both an instruction and His expectation.

Jesus also says this about prayer in Luke 11:9-10

Luke 11:9–10 CSB

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Charles Spurgeon says this about how we should view prayer because it is Christ’s command:

“We find a powerful reason for expecting prayer to be effective in the fact that it is an institution of God. In God’s Word, we are over and over again commanded to pray. God’s institutions are not folly [foolishness]. Can I believe that the infinitely wise God has ordained for me an exercise that is ineffective and is no more than child’s play?”

Charles Spurgeon, The Power in Prayer (p. 9)

Our prayers stem from our recognition of God’s holiness.

Holy: something that set apart; in the case of God Himself, He is totally other and greater than all other things.

In starting our prayers this way, we are automatically acknowledging that we are lesser than He is, and has implications for what Jesus says next:

The world (kingdom) that He is bringing about is greater than the one we have now, and we should long for it to come.

His will and desires are greater than ours, and we should seek to be aligned with Him.

Because these things true (prayer is commanded, effective, and stemming from God’s holy nature), we should recognize that we depend on God to both hear and answer our prayers.

What kinds of things must (not should) we depend upon God for? Jesus tells us in the next three verses, and honestly, I think our culture has caused us to lose sight of all three things that Jesus mentions here. We don’t have time to look at each on in depth, but a short word on each:

Daily needs and provisions (v. 11)

This is maybe the simplest, but necessary. In a culture of excess and over-indulgence, we are rarely satisfied with what God provides for us. We expect our needs to be met, and rarely do we see what a gift of God’s grace that is. It’s good to be in the habit of asking God to meet your needs.

Forgiveness of our debts (v. 12)

Many of us probably associate asking God for forgiveness with prayer. We’ll talk about this idea in more detail later, but God alone has the authority to forgive sins, and we depend and ask for Him to forgive us what is owed because of our sin. And as it goes according to this verse, and other places in the New Testament, we ought to be:

Ephesians 4:32 CSB

32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Deliverance from temptation and evil (v. 13)

Does God tempt anyone with sin?

James 1:13 CSB

13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

God does tempt us to sin, but for reasons unknown to us He allows us to be tempted. Rather than this part of the prayer asking God not to tempt us, it’s more-so an acknowledgment that temptation is expected, and it’s plea to God that He would spare us from the experience. And beyond that, if God allows the temptation to occur, it’s a further plea not to let us fall to the temptation that’s working to lead us to commit evil.

2. When we fast, we practice our dependence on God (v. 16-17)

Notice again there’s a level of expectation here from Jesus - He says, “Whenever you fast,” not, “if you fast.”

Fasting: Eating sparingly or abstaining from food altogether, either from necessity or desire. In medical terms, fasting is the detoxification of the body through the restriction of food. Spiritual fasting entails setting aside activities as well as reducing the intake of food and replacing these activities with the exercise of prayer and preoccupation with spiritual concerns.

Clarence B. Bass, “Fast, Fasting,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 780.

In other words, fasting is orienting ourselves, both physically and spiritually, to depend entirely on God.

Sadly, however, John Mark Comer mentions this:

Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus and, arguably, the single most neglected in the modern Western church.

Practicing the Way, 185.

So while fasting has tremendous power to lead us into greater dependence on God, it’s rarely used today, and in Jesus’ day, it was often misued. Listen to this from one Old Testament scholar:

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Fast, Fasting

In general, in the OT, fasting was abused. Instead of a sincere act of self-renunciation and submission to God, fasting became externalized as an empty ritual in which a pretense of piety was presented as a public image.

This is why Jesus emphasizes the contrasting motives of the hypocrites and those who fast faithfully.

The warning is not to let our religious practice be done to win the approval of man, but instead to truly devote ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to sustain us.

3. When we forgive, we display our dependence on God (v. 14-15)

I find it very interesting that these two practices are joined together by these two verses on forgiveness.

Forgiveness: surrendering any ability or opportunity to take revenge; willingly choosing to dismiss what may be owed to you.

This ability flows from utter dependence on the LORD and His promise that justice belongs to Him.

A failure to forgive is a failure to recognize who Jesus is, the lengths He went to in order to forgive us, and what it means to be a Kingdom Citizen.

We get two clear pictures of what this looks like in Scripture, one in the Old Testament and one from Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament.

The Old Testament story of Joseph from Genesis 41-50.

Long story short, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery out of jealousy, Joseph becomes essentially the prime minister of Egypt, and Joseph’s brothers unknowingly have to stand before the brother they betrayed and in order to receive enough food to survive a famine going on in their homeland.

Instead of getting even, Joseph instead chose to forgive and celebrate that his family had returned to him. He famously said to them:

Genesis 50:20 (ESV)

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:21–35 (CSB)

21 Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?”

22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.

23 “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him. 25 Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.

26 “At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.

28 “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’

29 “At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31 When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. 32 Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”

The servant in this parable intellectually could comprehend what was done what was done to forgive his debt, but the gift of forgiveness didn’t change him...

People who allow God’s forgiveness of their debt to change them are the ones who are quick to forgive the wrongs done to them.

“You in your sin have grieved God more than anyone has ever grieved you. But God in His love has shown you more mercy than you have ever extended to anyone else.”

- Johnny Ardavanis

We owe God a debt so massive and insurmountable that there is nothing we could ever do in a thousand lifetimes to pay it off. So, He gifted to us the most valuable and priceless thing He could offer, the life of His own Son, to cover the debt for us.

Accepting this gift should change us, the way we view and speak to God, the way we live, and the way that we respond to others who are just as indebted to God as we are.