When you fast

Matthew 6:16–18 CSB

16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Intro

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus gives us 3 “when’s”. But what we need to understand about these things is 2 fold: These are things we are expected to do as believers. and HOW we do them matters just as much as doing them. These 3 “when’s” are: When you give, when you pray and when you fast. Jesus qualifies these things as practicing righteousness in 6:1. I truly believe that Jesus highlights these three things because these are the three things that believers struggled to do the most. We struggle to give we struggle to pray, and we struggle to fast. It is easier for us to read our Bible than it is for us to get on our knees and cry out to God. It’s easier for us to attend church than it is for us to sow seeds in giving. We neglect a fast because our natural instinct is to serve our flesh. And that is why Jesus highlights these three things. Because I truly believe these are three of the hardest things, not the only things, but things that even Jesus saw needed to be addressed. And that’s why, with each of these things Jesus uses the word “when”. Because he had to set the tone that these are expected things. Things that are expected of us by God as acts of righteousness. That will strengthen your faith, bless your life, and produce fruit in the body of Christ.

When You Fast

Fasting is an expected spiritual practice.

It is not a time for us to brag about how spiritual we are or to compare how difficult our fast is. We are supposed to make the decision on our own and keep it to ourselves. This is not a diet plan or a competition. We are consecrating ourselves to God and Denying our flesh so that our spirit can be strengthened. Jesus knew we would struggle with this because he understands that the most basic craving of the flesh is for food. Hunger will make people go insane and make people do crazy things. If all of a sudden the grocery stores were empty we would be at each other’s throats very fast. I would argue even less than a day. The hunger that you feel in your flesh through food can be a very intense thing. But if we can learn to fast and to kill that desire of our flesh, we can overcome sin, strengthen our spirit and grow closer to God.

Purpose of Fasting

For Strengthened Prayers

Fasting and prayer are often connected with each other throughout the Bible. One example is:

Ezra 8:23 ESV

23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

It is not that fasting affects the way God hears our prayers but what it does, is it intensifies our prayer on our end.

It heightens our intensity, and clarity in focus in our prayer time.

To seek God’s Guidance

It does not change God’s mind on situations but rather we become more receptive to what he says. There is medical science that says our senses become sharpened when we fast.

When we are seeking answers from God we are more aware of his voice. Our brain is also purged of toxins during a fast.

I find that interesting especially if you are fasting social media as part of your fast. Your brain is being filled with all kinds of garbage every day while you scroll through the different pages. When you take that away your brain gets cleared of those things and allows you to focus on God’s word instead.

Repentance

We seen throughout scripture people fasting as a form of repentance. One example is found in Jonah 3.

It is an expression of seriousness in denying our fleshly desires to turn back to God.

Repenting means “to turn away from”. The truth is we all fall short everyday. We all need a clean slate and repentance. Repentance is not just a one time thing. Maybe for you, it is time to purge yourself of some fleshly desires and repent.

Humility

Fasting is an expression of humbling yourself before God.

Sacrifice is a humbling experience. Food for example, gives us a a sense of strength. When we deny ourselves of that strength we are saying “God I empty myself of this strength that comes from flesh, and make room for you to be the provider of strength.”.

Strengthen Self Control and Discipline Over the Flesh

1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV

27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

The practice of fasting, denying your flesh what it wants, builds your strength to defeat sin.

Your flesh is always at war against the spirit in you. When you fast you are preparing for battle. When you can deny your flesh of simple things like food, it becomes easier to deny the more complicated sin.

It all Leads to a Deeper Intimacy and Closeness to God

In Matthew 4, Jesus has fasted 40 days and nights and the Bible says he was hungry. Satan tempts him to turn stones into bread. Jesus tells him:

“Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”. You see, we have become very intimate with bread. But we lack the “word”relationship.

This 40 days and nights was Jesus getting closer to God and hearing from him.

How to Fast

Don’ts of Fasting

Don’t make yourself, appear to be miserable and be dramatic about your fasting. The Pharisees did this, and it was only for the attention so they can seem to be such holy faith leaders. Jesus called the Pharisees whitewash tombs because of their hypocrisy. They were all clean and tidy on the outside, but on the inside was nothing but death.

Do’s of Fasting

Jesus said, wash your face and annoy your head with oil go on about your day. Live your life. You still have to go to work, you still have responsibilities to fulfill. And when you make your fast a public spectacle, God will not bless that. Because for the third time, Jesus said what we do in private or in secret, God will see it in secret and bless it.

Types of Fasts

There are many different types of facts that you can find throughout scripture. There is the Daniel fast which is just raw fruits and vegetables. There is a total fast where you only drink water. You can also fast specific meals. Or specific foods. Sometimes it’s difficult based on health needs to do the total fast.But whichever type of fast you do it has to be something that is sacrificial and difficult. Because the whole purpose of a fast is to deny your flesh of what it wants most and there’s nothing your flesh wants more than food to eat. If you can get power over your flesh in that area, you can get power over your flesh in the spiritual ways as well.