Fasting and Faith

Fasting: Fasting is the intentional abstinence from food for a religious observance. Basically one would deprive themselves of food. Which makes someone very hungry. Maybe not at first, but by the time you are through fasting you are ravenously looking for food.

What fasting does is break the physical body down. It makes us weak, and brings us to a point of both focus, and strain.

It brings you to a place where you are relying on God rather than food. It sounds like a simple task, yet it is an effective one.

People fast when the mourn the loss of a loved one. Whether it be from death, the loss of life, or the loss of a relationship. It makes us sad. We tend to just forget to eat, or we don’t care to.

People fast to raise awareness. 30 hour famine is an even held every year that raises awareness of starving children across the world.

People fast for repentance. They refrain from eating food and mourn and lament their poor choices as they cry out to God for forgiveness. Showing Him how serious they are by denying their flesh, and turning to Him.

There are many reasons to fast, but many of them observed at this point was for religious purposes of various purposes. Traditions and rituals. They ask Jesus why His followers were not observing periods of fasting and Jesus simply said “Why would they fast? I’m right here. They have everything that they need.”

New Cloth sewn to the old showed that Jesus was trying to tell them that they could not connect the old covenants to the new. Jesus came to establish a new covenant, and fulfill the old. Jesus was now all that you needed. Nothing more, and nothing less.

With the wine skins, in order to produce wine grape juice must ferment. As grape juice turns to wine it produces gases and causes the containers to swell. The animal skins would stretch and allow the wine to be produced without harming the container. If new wine was poured into old wineskins then it would ferment beyond the point of the container and the wineskin would burst. Jesus was saying that the old traditions were no longer compatible with the new. That He had come with the new covenant, and the old have been used up.

Fasting now is a simple form of worship for us. If you want to draw closer to God by denying your flesh and coming to Him, you are encouraged to fast.

As Jesus was engaging with the disciples of John and the Pharisees a man came to Jesus explaining that his daughter had died, and he would like here raised from the dead. He knew that Jesus was the one and only one who would be able to do so, which is why he came directly to Him. Jesus agrees to save the young girl, and they head out.

On the way to the mans house, Jesus is making His way through the streets. He encounters a woman who has some strange faith, but it is great.

This woman has a disease. We are not sure what it is, but it causes her to bleed uncommonly from what a woman should. We all understand that a woman has a menstrual cycle, but this woman was far beyond that. According to Leviticus, if a woman was on her period she was considered unclean, and was to stay away from the temple until she was through. If the woman had a disease that caused her to bleed longer than the normal week then she was to stay away until she was healed and clean again. Then she was to make two offerings: one for sin, and one as a burnt offering. This was to be done whether she bleed for two weeks, or twelve years as in this woman’s case.

She had exhausted her resources trying to heal herself. She tried doctor after doctor, remedy after remedy, and nothing worked. She was at the end of her rope. Hopeless to remain in the state she was in, until she heard about this man Jesus. She had heard about Him, maybe even seen Him work miracles, or heard Him teach, but what is interesting is her faith in Him. Faith is believing without seeing, but she could see Jesus face to face. Her faith was not that He existed, but her faith was that He had the power to heal her. Not by laying hands on her, not by giving her instructions on how to correct herself. No, she thought “if I could only touch the tip of His robe that will be enough to make me well.” She had enough faith that Jesus had enough power that simply touching the clothes that He was wearing would be good enough to cleanse her.

And it worked. She touched His robe and she was healed, but it was not the touching of the robe that did it. Jesus said “your faith has made you well” meaning you had the faith in me that I would have the power and authority to heal you, and because you had that faith you will be made well. It was not the touching of the garment, but the faith of the woman.

The ruler that came to Jesus, his name was Jairus. He was a leader in the synagogue. If you have not learned by now, the leaders of the synagogues did not always jive well with Jesus, but this man had faith. He loved his daughter, he wanted his daughter alive, and he knew the exact Man to see to it that his daughter was healed. He came to Jesus and was not hysterical, I am sure he was anxious, but he says “my daughter has died, and you can raise her from the dead.” Jesus arose and followed the man to his house where Jesus found a crowd of mourners and He said “leave her alone. She’s only sleeping.” They scoffed at Him knowing that she had died, and He was talking crazy talk, but He sent them all outside and He took the girls hand and He gave her life back to her. The crowds were amazed when they saw the little girl walking out the front door to greet them. So amazed that they ran through the streets telling all of those who would hear of the dead girl that they saw walk again, and of how this man named Jesus had brought her back to life.

The faith of the little girls father is what prompted Jesus to get up from His place of sitting and go through the city to the man’s house. The man had heard Jesus, he had seen Jesus, and he had faith that Jesus had the power and the authority to heal and to save.

Faith is what made these ladies whole again, and faith is what can make you whole as well.

You see, we may be alive but spiritually we are all born dead. Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins”

but faith in Jesus will bring you to life Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He lived a perfect life, and He gave His life as a sacrifice in your place. He rose from the dead, and He is in heaven preparing homes for all of those who place their faith in Him. Just as so many people have done in the past and will continue to do. If you want salvation, if you want to be made spiritually alive and escape eternal death, place your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ. That is the only way. If you need help doing so, or you would like to do that, come talk to me. I would love to have a conversation with you.