Spiritual Habit Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18 ¹⁶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.¹⁷ But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;¹⁸ That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

We've been talking about Spiritual Habits for the past few weeks. I have made the point that your life matters on an eternal scale.

You may feel insignificant; however, because of what Jesus did for you on the cross, your life has the chance to impace eternity. 

• Therefore, it matters what you do with your time. The time that God has given you here on earth means something. To waste it is to waste an eternal opportunity. 
• It matters what you do with your talents. The gifts that GOd has given you were given to you, not so you can waste them on being rick and gaining social status. God has given you talents so that you can use them to impact eternity. 
• It matters what you do with your treasure. The material possessions you have were given to you by God so that you can help others and yourself. 

If we do not have good Spiritual habits, we will waste our time, talent, and treasure. 

We've all met people who've had great potential but wasted it.

• They wasted it on things that didn't matter.
• They wasted it on themselves; inst4ead of reaching out and helping others, they only cared about themselves.

Potential is the most underused word in the dictionary. Everyone you meet has at least some potential. It is a terible thing to waste what God has given you. 

Eternity is coming if we're reay or not. Each second that passes brings us one step closer to the end, and if we are not prepared, we will have an eternity with which to repent.

Therefore, we must have a process in place to help us make the most of what GOd has given us. 

A few weeks ago, I began by discussing the importance of a daily Bible reading plan. I told you how to start the habit of reading your Bible and meditating. 

The last time we were together, I talked about how to pray and gave a blueprint of how to structure your prayer time. 

This week I want to talk about fasting. I want to do 3 things:

1. What is fasting?
2. What does fasting do?
3. How to fast. 

What is fasting?

Fasting is saying no to the earthly, so we can say yes to the heavenly. 

We tend  to only focus on the no. Yes, we have to say no to food for a period, but we do that to say yest to God. 

When we loosen our grip on the world, the world loosens its grip on us. 

Life is hard; you have to fight every day to stay afloat, and the harder you fight, the tighter your grip on the things you're fighting for becomes. 

Listen to the words of Jesus.

Matthew 6:16 Moreover whenye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfirgure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verify I say unto you, they have their reward. 

Here, Jesus talks about 2 kinds of rewards:

• earthly rewards
• and heavenly rewards

The people who fast to be seen by others that is their reward. The people around them say, "look at Bob. He's so spiritual. What a godly man. I wish I were more like Bob."

Think of all the rich and famous people we see on television. They work hard for what they have. Their reward is the praise of man. 

• The cars
• The fancy houses
• The praise and adulation of the world

They have all the things that everyone in the world wants, but that's all they have. 

• They don't have the peace of knowing their sins are forgiven.
• They don't have the joy of knowing they are accepted by God. 

All they have is stuff.

• When you fast, you're saying no earthly comfort so that you can say yes to heavenly comfort. 
• When you fast, you're saying no to earthly recognition, so you can say yes to heavenly recognition. 

As believers, we sometimes, without realizing it, prioritize material things over spiritual things. 

Think, Parents who work long hours to provide for their kids but don't spend time with them. 

What's happening in that situation? You're overemphasizing the physical over the spiritual. 

If you run the rat race long enough, you will become a rat. Fasting gives us a chance to rest and refocus. 

We dent ourselves physically so that we can feed ourselves Spiritually. Or, in other words, we say no to the earthly so that we can say yes to the heavenly. 

What does fasting do? 

Fasting reminds us that we need the Spiritual as much as we need the physical. 

You are more than skin and bones. Yes, your body is part of you, but it's not all of you. 

There are times in our lives when we find ourselves on autopilot. Yes, we love God, but we begin to take our relationship for granted. 

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

Jesus has been in the desert fasting for forty days. And the end, Satan comes to Jesus and says, "if you're hungry, turn these stones into bread." 

Satan was trying to get Jesus to prioritize His life and ministry around earthly things. 

Jesus reponds, "Spiritual nourishment is as important as physical nourishment." 

• Your job is important; that's how you feed your family. 
• Saving for retirement is important. 
• Making sure kids get an education is important. 

Jesus isn't saying that all these things are unimportant. But often, what we forget is that Spiritual things are important too. 

We get busy, and then we forget to feed ourselves spiritually. Fasting reminds us that we are more than our bodies. 

"Fasting is a way of saving with our stomach and our whole body how we need and want and trust Jesus" -John Piper

You see, there are times when we confuse what we want with what we need. Fasting helps us understand that we need Jesus.

• Things like nice cars
• Nice clothes

Are what we want, but we need Jesus.

How to fast

Matthew 6:17-18 ¹⁷ But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;¹⁸ That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

The first thing that Jesus says is that you should make fasting a private matter. In other words, it should be between you and God.

Jesus says we should "wash our face." In other words, we should not make ourselves look miserable so that we people see that we people see that we're suffering and ask, "what's wrong?" 

The purpose of fasting is not about the outward. Remember, fasting is about saying no to the earthly so that can say yes to the heavenly. In this case, saying no to the earthly means saying no to earthly praise.

Doug Mathis, in his article fasting for beginner, gives some helpful advice on how to start fasting¹ 

How to start. 

1. Start small . Going without food is serious; it affects your mood. We've all done and said things we regret because we're "hangery." SO, if this is the first time we have fasted, we should start small. I suggest skipping one meal a day for a week. Then, gradually you can build up to a day. 
2. Plan what you are going to do instead of earing. Maybe instead of eating, you set a portion of your time aside so that you can seek God's guidance on a specific issue. An excellent example is Acts 13, where the church fasted and prayed for God's guidance and led the church to commission Paul for his ministry to the Gentiles. 
3. Consider how your fast will affect others. You may experience this; you decide to fast, and everyone wants to buy you lunch. If this happens, we're not to be rude; inst4ead, say. "no thank you." If they press tell them why you're not eating. Even though fasting should be private, sometimes people won't take no for an answer. Simply telling them, "I'm fasting," as politely as possible, will save you a headache. 
4. Try different kinds of fasting. You can fast from other things besides food. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "Fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual puprose." You can fast from thins like: 
   1. 1. Television.
      2. Video games.
      3. Social media.
      4. Eating out.
5. Don't dwell on the fact that you're hungry. When you feel the hunger pains learn to focus on the purpose of your fast. 

 

^{1 https://www.desiringgod.org/articlews/fasting-for-beginners}