ON FASTING (I)
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”
The first address of our Master concerning fasting dealt with motive. Everything that concerns fasting is done in vain if the heart is not right. Many have associated fasting to getting God to do something, yet His benefits and mercies are with us everyday when we surely don’t and can’t deserve them.
Others have associated this discipline to seeking answers, guidance, clarity and the likes, not withstanding that it could be such a distraction for the heart and lead it to subconsciously seek the blessing and not the blesser. So fasting in itself is a good thing, but as a great minister once put it, using good things to our own ends is a sign of false religion.
Jesus points this out in our theme scripture, he starts with ‘when’ firstly implying that once the bridegroom is not with us anymore, it is expected of us to fast; and secondly speaks on the how. He didn’t add or subtract much from the already existing practice, He simply corrected the way in which it was done.
Child of God, it is expedient that your fasting be done with the single handed desire to draw nearer and to seek God for Him, seek to glorify Him above all else. Then everything else comes following, be it that clarity, that revelation, that insight — because He promises to reward those who diligently seek Him ().
Prayer: Father I thank you for this truth. You are the center of all my searching, and by glorifying you, all else is added unto me. Teach me to constantly abide for all life flows from you. My spirit is ruled and I do all that I do as unto the Lord, in Jesus name, Amen.
CI.
