SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2020 12:22 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Proper
Fasting”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
6:17-18
Message of the verses: “17 No, when you
fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that nobody knows that you are fasting—let
it be a secret between you and your Father. And your Father who knows all
secrets will reward you” (Philips). “17
"But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that
your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret;
and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you”
(NASB95).
As
one goes through the New Testament they will find that fasting is mentioned
around thirty times, and it is almost always done in a favorable manner. However it is possible that fasting was even
overemphasized in some parts of the early church for at least four times a
reference to fasting seems to have been inserted into the original text where
it is not actually found in some of the earliest and best manuscripts. The following are these places where fasting
probably was inserted: Matthew 17:21;
Mark 9:29; Acts 10:30; 1 Corinthians 7:5.
As I look at the verses from the NASB95 version one can see that most of
them have brackets around them showing that they were not in the earliest
manuscripts.
As
we begin to look at verse seventeen we that Jesus says “when you fast” which
shows that this was a normal thing for people to do in the time when Jesus was
on the earth, something we have already spoken about in an earlier SD. I believe that Jesus is assuming that His
followers will fast on certain occasions; however He does not give a command or
specify a particular time, place, or method of fasting. We have written about the only time in the OT
when fasting was required, which was the Day of Atonement, and since the Day of
Atonement ceased when Jesus made the once-for-all sacrifice on the cross as
seen in Hebrews 10:10, this single time of fasting where it was required had
ceased.
I
want to talk about a section of Scripture found in Matthew 9:14-15 “14 Then the
disciples of John came to Him, asking, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast,
but Your disciples do not fast?" 15 And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the
bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But
the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they
will fast.” I believe that the
reason that Jesus’ disciples did not fast while He was with them was because
many times fasting was done when someone was mourning, and not just mourning
over the loss of a loved one or friend.
John
MacArthur writes “Fasting is never shown in Scripture to be the means of
heightened spiritual experience, visions, or special insight or awareness—as many
mystics, including some Christian mystics, claim. Fasting is appropriate in this age, because
Christ is physically absent from the earth.
But it is appropriate only as a response to special times of testing,
trial, or struggle.” Speaking of a
struggle, I can remember a former Pastor that I sat under from 1978-1986 who
was preaching about fasting and he mentioned that one of the members of our
church had decided to fast and pray because he had lost his job and was having
a difficult time in finding one.
As
I am going through the Bible in a different way at this time from when I was
just reading straight through I came across the difficult passages of when
David sinned against Bathsheba and her husband, and then when Nathan came and
confronted him with this sin. Nathan
told David that their baby would die and so David was fasting and praying
before God in hopes that God would save the baby’s life. He would not eat, and he was dressed in some
type of mourning clothes while he was fasting.
David did not desire any food because of his sorrow, but after the baby
died he washed himself and changed his clothes, which is a sign of a new
beginning and went to comfort his wife Bathsheba, as his fasting was over.
I
believe that when a person is mourning and does not desire to have food that
perhaps it is a good idea not to force them to eat, as I think that their whole
being is in a state of mourning and does not want any food similar to David’s
story.
12/12/2020 12:50 PM
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