Week 2 || Day 2
PURPOSE OF FASTING: TO HUMBLE OUR HEARTS.
Often people think we fast for God so He will hear us or love us more. However, we already have His full love and His ear! In reality, fasting is for us. It humbles us and teaches us to depend on God and not ourselves. Fasting helps us to place God at the forefront of our lives. Richard Foster comments in Celebration of Discipline:
“It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive. To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion...Fasting must forever center on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained...Fasting reminds us that we are sustained by ‘every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ (Matt. 4:4)...Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting!”
But as with other disciplines, fasting can open the door to a look-at-me attitude rather than a true desire to please the Lord. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12). While fasting, they walked around with downcast faces and unkempt appearances so that everyone would see their piety and praise them.
Why did Jesus abhor this practice? Because He could see their hearts. He understood their true motives. He also knew that fasting had been undertaken with wrong motives by the Jewish people in the past (see Isaiah 58:1-7).
So, what about fasting today? The issue is the same. How we fast depends on who we are fasting to impress. If our fast is taken on in humility, for our spiritual benefit and God’s glory, then there is no need for any man’s approval and our fast will be honoring to God. And how does one allow fasting to help humble us? Recognizing our dependence on God is humbling. Acknowledging our weaknesses is humbling. And fasting is shown throughout the Bible to be a practical, physical way that we are able to humble ourselves
But humility doesn’t come naturally. Everything in us strives to keep our pride. We have to willingly fight against that pride in order to reorder our lives according to spiritual truths. There’s something incredibly powerful that happens when we wholeheartedly surrender pride and satisfaction in the world to make space for more of God. God loves to fill us when we hunger! In his patience he waits for us to cry out to him to bring us into the fullness of what he has for us. But in his pursuit of us he constantly whispers from his Spirit to ours, beckoning us to give up our glory in this world for His glory in both this world and eternity.
Furthermore, if we are motivated to fast by love for God and our neighbors, our humble stance will, in turn, “loose the chains of injustice… set the oppressed free… share food with the hungry… provide the wanderer with shelter… and the naked with clothing.” (Isaiah 58: 6-7) When our hearts are humbled and our faith is wholly focused on the wonder and glory of our Heavenly Father, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58: 8).
Illustration: “Lenny Skutnik had no intention of being a hero that day. The staffer at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington was having an ordinary winter day when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River shortly after takeoff. Those who survived the crash faced death as the plane sank in the icy waters.
A helicopter dropped a rescue line to one of the survivors, but she was too weak to hold on. Lenny Skutnik saw what was happening and dove into the water. He swam out to her and pulled her back to shore, saving her life. Two weeks later, President Ronald Reagan invited Skutnik to attend the State of the Union address, and in describing the accident said: “We saw the heroism of one of our young government employees, Lenny Skutnik, who, when he saw a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line, dived into the water and dragged her to safety.”
Skutnik was honored by the president of the United States, not because he tried to draw attention to himself but because he did what was right in a crisis. Satan tells us that we need to be sure everything we do is seen and praised. Yet God reminds us that attempts to promote ourselves eventually backfire.” - Allan Metcalf, Presidential Voices
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Kids SEEK, too!
Kids’ Illustration: This is a testimony from a 6 year-old boy:
"I wanted to tell you how some of this has been true in my life.
When my family worships together, each child in our family draws a business card out of a basket. Each card has a number on it: one through six. Those who draw numbers five, four , three, and two get to sit on the sofa. Number one and six have to sit on the chairs. Two times I traded places with someone on a chair so that they could sit on the sofa. I was able to put myself last.
One time, I was sitting in the middle seat of the van. Laura wanted to sit next to Gina and I was in the middle. So I sat somewhere else. I obeyed the Holy Spirit telling me what to do."
Kids’ Activity for Today’s Prayer Focus:
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Bible:
“But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting; And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.” Psalm 35:13 (NASB)
“And 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. Then the word of the LORD came . . . saying, “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?” 1 Kings 21:27-29 (NASB)
“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?” ( Isaiah 58:5 (NASB)
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Quote for Today:
“A fast is not a hunger strike. Fasting submits to God's commands. A hunger strike makes God submit to our demands.” - Edwin Louis Cole
“Fasting is what prepares you for a new anointing.” - Jentezen Franklin
“When you are hungry for God; He will fill you.” - Jentezen Franklin
“Not everyone who fasts is humble. But humble people fast.” -unknown
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Points to Ponder:
Are you in a crisis, depressed, in genuine need, or facing a major decision? Fasting is an excellent place to start.
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CLOSING PRAYER: Father God, today I am humbling myself. I am submitting to you. I am seeking you in all things. Please surround me with your provision and protection as I seek you humbly and choose to submit my whole life to you. I pray, Jesus, that you reveal to me the places in my heart which need to be realigned as I experience all God longs to do in me through the gift of fasting. Amen.
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