When you fast, don’t be gloomy like the play-actors. Matthew 6:16 (TKNT)
Away From The Spotlight – Sermon on the Mount Series – Part 9
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“When you fast, don’t be gloomy like the play-actors. They make their faces quite unrecognizable, so that everyone can see they’re fasting. I’m telling you the truth: they have received their reward in full. No: when you fast, tidy your hair and beard the way you normally do, and wash your face, so that others won’t know you’re fasting – except your father, privately. Then your Father, who sees in private, will repay you.” Matthew 6:16-18 (N.T. Wright’s “The Kingdom New Testament Translation”).
PRACTICE: SECRETLY FAST.
Play-acting fasting wants to be seen by others. The kind of true fasting God desires seeks first God’s kingdom away from the spotlight. Our Lord's most often quoted prophet makes it plain what kind of fasting God has in mind:
“On the day of your fasting, you do what you please and exploit your workers(!?!?)… Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: To loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor refugee with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58.
How might you incorporate fasting in your life that you might hunger more for God’s kingdom?
PRAYER: Lord, you anoint my head with oil, you make your face shine upon me. May not my fasting be seen before others but by you alone. Create in me a hungry heart for your kingdom and its healing justice. Amen.
Contributed and Written by: Jarrod McKenna
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Twitter: @jarrodmckenna
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