When was the last time that you willingly gave up something that you normally have or do, for someone else? Maybe your weekend thing is going out riding ATVs in the forest, but you gave it up and instead used that time for someone else. This is, in a way, a form of fasting.
To fast means to abstain or restrict one’s self from doing something, usually used in reference to eating food, but can also be used to abstain from other things as well. If I said that I am going to “fast” something such as coffee, for example, it means that I am going to refrain myself from drinking it. If I am going to fast all food completely for a day, then I am not going to eat anything at all for that day.
Now used in the Bible, the practice of fasting is done as a show of our love to the Father, to show Him that our love for Him is greater than our belly. It shows that we are able to give up certain things for Him and that those things do not control us, and we want to give up food for a time to show the Lord that He is Who we serve, and not our stomachs.
But just as there are those who will only try to act like they are Christians when around others and can be seen, there can be people who fast, but only do it to look pious and holy. They don’t actually abstain from eating food because they want to be pleasing to God, but they instead do it just to look “righteous.” This is not the reason to fast, and Jesus called these kinds of people hypocrites in Matthew 6.
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.”
Just to look at two different people as you pass by them on the street, you can’t really tell if someone has just eaten or not, can you? But if someone had kind of a scrunched up, distorted face it might make you go up to them and say, “Are you all right?” “No, no, I’m okay, I’m just fasting.” Do you see the problem here? The real reason they are fasting isn’t because of their love for the Lord, it is for the admiration of men. That is their motivation. To be seen by others.
When we fast, it is for God to see, not others. No one else needs to know but Him, and this is why the Lord taught that if we fast we should anoint our head, presumably with something like oil, and to wash our face, because just as when you don’t go outside too often your skin becomes very light looking and pale, when you don’t eat for a while you can start to look a bit paler and maybe an bit haggard, and washing your face and anointing your head will bring that color back into your skin.
Once again, when we fast it is a show of our love to God, for Him and Him alone to see. It is our secret, between Him and us, and that secret will be rewarded.
Colossians 3:23-24 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
It doesn’t even have to be food that you give up. You could give up other things as well. Your time spent doing other things that your normally do you could instead set aside and give to the Lord. But the same rule applies as with eating or drinking: no one needs to know. This thing that you chose to give up for the Lord is for Him to see, not others. We want the rewards that come from Jesus, not others.
No one else needs to know.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 