A Hunger for God Post 4 of 7 | Fasting for the Reward of the Father
This
is a special City Notes for Emmaus City Church in relation to fasting from the book, A Hunger for God. Here are some previous reflections:
Post 1 of 7 | A Homesickness for God
Post 2 of 7 | New Fasting for New Wine
Post 3 of 7 | The Desert Feast of Fasting
5-Minute Reflection
"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." – Matthew 6:16-18, RSV
"He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee which he loves not for Thy sake." – pg. 66, St. Augustine, The Confessions
"Let us learn from our Lord's instruction about fasting, the great importance of cheerfulness in our religion. Those words, 'anoint thy head, and wash thy face,' are full of deep meaning. ... Are we dissatisfied with Christ's wages, and Christ's service? Surely not! Then let us not look as if we were." – pg. 66, J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
We have come to God out of weakness to express to him our need and our great longing that he would manifest himself more fully in our lives for the joy of our soul and the glory of his name.
"Dr. Joon Gon Kim in Seoul, Korea: 'Is it true,' I asked him, 'that you spent 40 days in fasting prior to the evangelism crusade in 1980?' 'Yes,' he responded, 'it is true.' Dr. Kim was chairman of the crusade expected to bring a million people to Yoido Plaza. But six months before the meeting the police informed him they were revoking their permission for the crusade. Korea at the time was in political turmoil and Seoul was under martial law. The officers decided they could not take the risk of having so many people together in one place. So Dr. Kim and some associates went to a prayer mountain and there spent 40 days before God in prayer and fasting for the crusade. Then they returned and made their way to the police station. 'Oh,' said the officer when he saw Dr. Kim, 'we have changed our mind and you can have your meeting!'" – pgs. 67-68
" ... I have learned a very personal dimension to what Jesus declared, 'I have had meat to eat ye know not of.' ... The thing that gripped (me) from Matthew 6:16-18 were the words in verse 16, 'Whenever you fast ... ' ... it does not say, 'If you fast,' but rather, 'when you fast.' ... 'Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will observe the pious custom of fasting." – pgs. 68-69
" ... the earliest church, including the apostles, practiced public fasting (for example, Acts 13:3). ... Matthew 6:1-18 begins with the warning 'Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.' The point of the whole section is not that public righteousness 'before men' is bad, but that doing it 'to be noticed by them' is bad. This is confirmed by the fact that even though he said, 'When you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret,' nevertheless he himself practiced public prayer (Luke 3:21; 11:1; John 11:41). The motive for praying and fasting is what matters, not whether the acts are public or private. ... the disciples should want the world to see this practice of righteousness so that God would be glorified. 'Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works.' So the motive at stake is not simply whether you want your acts to be known by others, but why you want them to be known – that God be glorified, or that you be admired." – pg.73
"Jesus says, 'And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.' It is good and right to want and to seek the reward of God in fasting. Jesus would not have offered this to us if it were defective to reach for it. I have argued for decades that seeking the reward of the Father is not sub-Christian or unloving or contrary to true virtue. As C.S. Lewis said: 'There are rewards that do not sully motives. A man's love for a woman is not mercenary because he wants to marry her, nor his love for poetry mercenary because he wants to read it, nor his love for exercise less interested because he wants to run and leap and walk. Love, by definition, seeks to enjoy its object.' Doing right 'just because it is right' is not the Christian ideal. Doing right to enlarge our delight in God is. ... God sees us fasting. He sees that we have a deep longing that is pulling us away from the ordinary good uses of the world in order to fast. He sees that our hearts are not seeking the common pleasures of human admiration and applause. He sees that we are acting not out of strength to impress others with our discipline, or even out of a desire to influence others to imitate our devotion. But we have come to God out of weakness to express to him our need and our great longing that he would manifest himself more fully in our lives for the joy of our soul and the glory of his name." – pgs. 76-77
" ... the reward we are to seek from the Father in fasting is not first or mainly the gifts of God, but God himself. ... Where in the context might we look for the reward that the Father encourages us to seek? I think a reliable guide would be the prayer that Jesus just taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (before his words on fasting in verses 16-18). It begins with three main longings that we are to hope for from God. First, that God's name be hallowed or revered; second, that God's kingdom come; and third, that his will be done on earth the way it's done in heaven. That is the first and primary reward Jesus tells us to seek in our praying and our fasting. We fast out of longing for God's name to be known and cherished and honored, and out of longing for his kingly rule to be extended and then consummated in history, and out of longing for his will to be done everywhere with the same devotion and energy that the indefatigable angels do it sleeplessly in heaven forever and ever. ... The supremacy of God in all things is the great reward we long for in fasting. His supremacy in the purity of the church. His supremacy in the salvation of the lost. His supremacy in the establishing of righteousness and justice. And his supremacy for the joy of all peoples in the evangelization of the world. ... And so we ask, as we fast and pray, Do we want to conquer bad habits and old enslavements, to remove every obstacle to the fullest enjoyment of God, so that people might see and give him glory? Do we want our prodigal sons and wayward daughters to come home because this would honor God's name? Do we want our churches to grow because the hallowing of Christ's name is at stake among unbelievers? Do we want China and North Korea and Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Libya to open their doors to the gospel for the sake of the advance of the kingship of Jesus? Do we want upright leaders in government because this world is meant to magnify the goodness and justice of God? This is what Jesus is calling us to – a radically God-oriented living and praying and fasting." – pgs. 78-80
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