When you fast...

When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show people that they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6.16-18)

'It is sobering to realise 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. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want. At times there is such a stress upon the blessings and benefits of fasting that we would be tempted to believe that with a little fast we could have the world, including God, eating out of our hand.' (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline)

We have talked about fasting in relation to the Open Church Project - and suggested some might choose to do this on particular days (when there are likely to be significant meetings or important decisions to be made). Let us be clear, however: we are not fasting as a means of pushing buttons with the Lord in order to get what we want from Him.

We know that, of course, but believe me it's so easy to slip into thinking something along those lines without even realising you are doing it.

Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline is a book full of wonderful wisdom and his chapter on fasting, from which I have quoted above, is a good place to start on the topic. Foster goes on to say that:

'Fasting must forever center on God... Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights - these must never replace God as the center of our fasting. John Wesley declared, "First let it [fasting] be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven..." That is the only way we will be saved from loving the blessing more than the Blesser.'

There are rewards to fasting, of course - Jesus says so (if we don't do it to be praised by others for our piety, in which case that's all the reward we'll get!). But the greatest reward of all - as one day we shall know more fully than we can ever know now - is a deepening of our relationship with Father God. May we hunger for that above all else.