When You Fast
Fasting Defined:
To abstain from food;
To eat sparingly from some foods.
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
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. —Matthew 6:16 - 18
Rewriting Your Future Through Fasting
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. —Psalms 139:16
1. God’s Book for you is written in The Spirit.
Fasting is food for the spirit and life for the soul.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. —Romans 8:1 - 26 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. —Romans 8:6 - 1113 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. —Romans 8:13 - 14
2. God’s Book for you needs all of you.
Fasting is about sacrifice.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. —Romans 12:1
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” —Romans 11:33 - 34
3. God’s Book for you has no chapters written by this world.
Fasting helps break the patterns of this world in your life.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… —Romans 12:2a
4. God’s Book for you is not authored with confusion.
Fasting brings clarity.
…That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. —Romans 12:2b
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. —1 Corinthians 13:12
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. —Psalms 119:105
5. God’s Book for you has you finishing the race.
Fasting is a mirror for your spirit life.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. —James 4:8
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. —Psalms 51:17
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. —Hebrews 12:1 - 2