There are three main things that each person needs to have on a regular basis in order to keep your body alive. They are food, water, and air. These three things are what nourish, hydrate, and oxygenate the body so that you can continue to do what you normally do. But for some people, they feel like they just cannot go a single day without food, much less just skipping a single meal.
Question: what is it that separates or defines a Christian apart from the world? Our love for Christ and our desire to please, obey, and serve Him. As our God, Jesus is Who our lives need to be centered on, and we should seek to honor Him through our actions. We should seek to show our love to Him. And one way we can do this is through fasting.
Most often when referring to the word “fast” in the Bible, it is referring to the abstaining from the eating of food, for however long of a time. Having the ability to skip a meal or two, or a day or two. While love is rather a strong way to put it, I would say that most of us really enjoy eating a good meal, whatever it may be. I bet that when a certain holiday or other special day rolls around you will most likely be a partaker of some really good food. Well if someone wants to show the Lord how much they love Him, what better way than to give up something that you really enjoy for a period of time?
While fasting is generally thought of as just abstaining from the eating of food, you can also give up other things to show your love for the Lord. What are some things that you like to do? For certain people they may like to go on a daily motorcycle ride out in the country, and it is just something that they really like to do. There is nothing wrong with that, but you could one day skip your ride and in the time that you would have spent riding you could use that time to pray to the Lord, or sing some songs to Him, or spend time reading the Word. If we are able to give up the things which we love for Christ, it shows that He is the most important thing in our life. That we love Him more.
The Bible tells us about a certain woman in the Bible, named Anna, who was an elderly woman, and she had dedicated her life to God, frequently spending time fasting and praying to the Lord, she loved the Lord so much.
Luke 2:36-37 “And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”
When someone decides to have a fast for the Lord, the act of fasting should be, as I said, because of your love for Jesus, but some people do it for a different motive. Jesus had some strong rebukes for the Pharisees because some of them were fasting, but they weren’t fasting because they loved God, they were only doing it because they wanted others to see them fasting, in a show of self righteousness. They wanted the praise of men, to appear holy. But they weren’t like that in their hearts.
When we fast, Jesus taught that it should be done in a way that is not apparent to others around you, because your fast is a special thing between you and the Heavenly Father. It is a gift and a show of love and dedication for Him, not others.
Matthew 6:16-18 “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.
But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
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.”
When we fast, it shows that we can give up an important part of our daily life for the Lord. For some people, though, food is their god, and they can’t or won’t give up eating even for a short amount of time, it has such a tight hold on them. They forget where that food ultimately came from. It came from God.
Philippians 3:18-19 “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”
The next time you fast for Jesus, remember Who it is that you are doing it for. Remember why you are doing it, and keep it between you and Him.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 