Secret Fasting

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 6:16  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.

Mat 6:17  But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

Mat 6:18  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.

Disfiguring your face so you appear to fast.

How many people out there are 'dressing' the part, but not 'living' the part?

Do  you dress the part without living it?

Is there an air of 'holier than thou' about you that is manufactured?

Are you one of those outward sheep but inward wolves?

One who truly follows Christ knows that they can hide NOTHING from Him, nothing.  They comprehend that they can put on garments they perceive are proper, but inwardly be far from proper.

HYPOCRITES play at being God's. HYPOCRITES put on a show of being a CHRISTIAN. HYPOCRITES want others to note their 'goodness', their 'godliness'. 

Fasting.

Why did/do people fast at all?

Fasting is abstaining from food.

When we eat we are replenishing our bodies.  We know that if we stop eating, or are kept from eating that our bodies will grow weaker and weaker until finally we die.  Food is a necessity to us. However food is also a pleasure to us. We enjoy eating. And while we must eat to live, we can eat too much we can in fact live to eat- abusing food, abusing our bodies with food.

Food being a necessity as well as something we enjoy, when we voluntarily choose to stop eating we are choosing to stop doing something that will keep our bodies at their best as well as something we enjoy. We are giving up something that ultimately decides whether we live or die.  Symbolically when we choose to fast aren't we choosing to die unless God sees fit to sustain us through the fast?  What message are we sending to God when we fast?

Hasn't God called people to fast?

Jesus was called to fast for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.

David chose to fast when his first son by Bathsheba lay dying.  He fast for this reason--

2Sa 12:21  Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

2Sa 12:22  And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

He fasted and wept hoping God would look upon him and spare his son's life. 

His fast was a denial of sustenance hoping his sacrifice of that sustenance would have God look favorably upon him.

And Jesus said this--

Mat 17:18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Mat 17:19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Mat 17:21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Causing this particular sort of devil to depart from the afflicted wasn't possible unless those trying to cast out this sort of evil prayed and fasted.

Fasting - denying self sustenance while calling upon God, entreating God to intervene and rid someone of the evil spirit inside them. 

Fasting seems to be symbolic of giving up part of our life for God.

Yet people go on fasts all the time for various reasons.

Some are told to fast before medical tests. Others fast to rid their body of what they believe are unwanted toxins. Still others fast to entreat gods other than the One and Only Great I AM. There are fasts for dieting purposes as people try to lose weight in fact I recently read about a man who uses fasting throughout the week on various days as a means to limiting his caloric intake so he can use those calories later when he really wants to splurge, this keeping him from gaining weight by mingling fasting with splurging. 

So fasting isn't restricted to serving God.

Jesus however is referring to those who try to appear godly by putting on a show of their sacrificing their sustenance, wanting everyone to recognize that they are doing this sacrificial act and that makes THEM somehow closer to God than others.

Whenever we try to APPEAR Godly for the sake of APPEARING Godly then it is a false representation, it's a lie and God abhors a lie!

Can you genuinely look perhaps gaunt from an extended fast, that goes beyond a person purposely making themselves look bad as they fast? Yes. God is against us putting on a show, because the truth is hidden and a lie is born.   If fasting is going to cause you to change outwardly it has to be a natural, not a manufactured change. 

Jesus tells us we are to NOT to appear as if we are fasting at all, why? Because the fast is a personal connection between God and the one fasting, not a public show. God doesn't want the public show He wants the genuine heart involved in fasting. 

It makes you wonder how many stopped fasting when they couldn't put on that show. Seriously. If they weren't reaping the reward of acknowledgement from other people of their supposed piety then why bother at all. They truly were NOT fasting in the way God intended.

Fasting can be an offering we make to God, a giving up of self, a self sacrifice.  Just because we fast does not mean we will automatically get any petitions we are asking of God, it's not a magic lamp effect.  David did not receive what he was desiring by his fasting, yet others fast and do receive their petitions.  It is ultimately all the WILL of God.  We must want the WILL of GOD no matter what we are seeking. It must be HIS WILL and our faith in HIS WILL over our very finite comprehension of all things.

Again Jesus says this--

Mat 6:18  ... unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Our Father sees us in all our supposedly secret acts. We don't need others to see us because that draws attention more to ourselves than to God. There is a grave danger in drawing attention to ourselves, a danger Satan loves to encourage. We are to do these things in secret so we are NOT tempted to draw attention towards ourselves taking it from God who deserves all the GLORY, all the PRAISE, all the HONOR!

In HIS amazing LOVE ALWAYS! By HIS GRACE and MERCY!