SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/14/2020 2:07 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Proper
Fasting”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
6:17-18
Message of the verses: “17 "But you, when you fast, anoint your head
and wash your face, 18 "so that you do not appear to men to be fasting,
but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father
who sees in secret will reward you openly” (NKJV).
We
be begin this SD by looking at the next reason for proper fasting and that is
Penitence, as this was often accompanied by fasting. We have already mentioned about David’s
fasting and praying about his son’s life, the son with Bathsheba. David also fasted after the sin of committing
adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband Uriah sent to the front of
the battle to be killed. Daniel also
fasted and prayed about the sins that Israel committed as he confessed their
sins to the Lord, and in that ninth chapter of Daniel he also confessed that he
too was a sinner even though there is no recorded sin of his found in the
Bible, but like all of us Daniel was born a sinner. Let us now look at a person that we may have
forgotten that he too fasted. I will
pick up this story from 1 Kings 21 in the middle of it as we will look at verses
27-29 “27 It came about when Ahab heard
these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he
lay in sackcloth and went about despondently. 28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the
Tishbite, saying, 29 "Do you see
how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before
Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil
upon his house in his son’s days’” (The story is about Ahab and the death of Naboth
which was actually his wife’s idea to have him killed). John MacArthur writes about another fasting
after he mentions something about Ahab. “Because of Ahab’s sincerity, the Lord postponed
the judgment (v. 29). Centuries later,
after the exiles had returned safely to Jerusalem, the Israelites were
convicted of their intermarrying with unbelieving Gentiles. As Ezra confessed that sin in behalf of his
people, ‘he did not eat bread, nor drink water, for he was mourning over the
unfaithfulness of the exiles’ (Ezra 10:6).”
We
have been learning about Jonah over the last few weeks at our church, actually
we have been learning a lot about the book of Jonah, and in that book we see a
wonderful work of God from a reluctant prophet as we see repentance and fasting
directed by the king of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah. Nineveh was one of the cruelest empires of
that time, and may rank as one of the most cruelest of all times, yet God
brought a great revival to that city at the preaching of Jonah who did not want
to be there. It was the words that he
preached to them that caused this great revival, not the fact that he would
have rather been elsewhere.
MacArthur
talks about the next reason for fasting:
“Fasting was sometimes associated with the receiving or proclaiming of a
special revelation from God. As Daniel
contemplated Jeremiah’s prediction of the seventy year’s desolation of
Jerusalem, he gave his ‘attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and
supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes’ (Dan. 9:2-3). As he continued ‘speaking in prayer,’ he
reports, ‘then the man Gabriel, whom I have seen in the vision previously, came
to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. And he gave me instruction and talked with
me, and said ‘Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with
understanding’’ (vv. 21-22). A short time
later, just before receiving another vision, Daniel made a partial fast—by forsaking
‘any tasty food…meat or wine—for three weeks (10:3) It is important to note that, though fasting
was related to the revelations, it was not a means of achieving them. Daniel’s fasting was simply a natural
accompaniment to his deep and desperate seeking of God’s will.”
I
will conclude with what I believe to be a very important paragraph from
MacArthur’s commentary even though it is a short one: “We often fail to understand God’s Word as
fully as we ought simply because, unlike those great people of God, we do not
seek to comprehend it with their degree of intensity and determination. Skipping a few meals might be the small price
we willingly pay for staying in the Word until understanding comes.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that these are some very good
reasons to conduct a fast that we have been looking at in this section of
Matthew.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my desire to continue to pray that the
Lord will bring revival to me and to others too.
12/14/2020 2:38 PM
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