So today’s task for the Boundless Summer Challenge was to listen to an online message about fasting and then fast….
Unfortunately for me, I didn’t check the message until after lunch. Immediately, I was a little disappointed. As some of you may know, I am already fasting sugar/sweets, breads and pastas. I am doing this fast because I know that these are the things that I turn to and indulge in instead of turning to God. After reading the message, my first instinct was “well… I better go eat some food before I stop eating,” and I know this is the wrong way of thinking about fasting because I have fasted before. Admittedly, I did snack this afternoon as a “build up” for fasting but more because I was bored than because I was hungry. When I got home though, I decided that I would continue my fast through tomorrow because I had cheated God and myself out of spending time together, without food covering up issues that needed to be brought to the surface.
After making this decision, I figured I should listen to the message about fasting. Although I doubted that I would hear anything I hadn’t already heard, I thought it would be important to be faithful to the commitment to complete this challenge without cheating. Oh God, you are so good! Thank you for providing such a wonderful message.
Today’s message was a sermon by John Piper titled “Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone”…. And I needed to hear it!
Matthew 3:16 through 4:4
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
When looking at this passage, John Piper (J.P.) started off with the point that physically painful situations (like extended fasting) are not punishments from God because he is displeased with us. We know this because a voice from heaven came down to Jesus and said “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” and then the Spirit lead him into the wilderness to be tested. God was not mad at Jesus. He is also calling me to fast because he delights in me and wants to grow closer with me, not because he is mad at me. This is important for me to remember because I yearn to approach fasting with a joyful heart.
Next, J.P. talked about the how important it is to fast because fasting teaches us what controls us. In my own life, I have used food to cover up a multitude of internal problems. I have turned to food for comfort when I’m hurting, to reward/motivate myself, to relive my favorite memories, to rebel, and just as today, when I’m bored as a time filler. Fasting however brings up the question “what do I do with my dissatisfaction when I don’t have supper to look forward to?” At times when we are fasting, we become angry but not because the hunger is truly unbearable. No, we become angry because there is a angry spirit within us that without food, is revealed. I have seen this in my own life as I was fasting in New Zealand. It was super powerful!
Throughout the bible, fasting can be seen as a very powerful experience. In Psalm 35 David tells us that he humbled himself with fasting, showing yet another benefit of this “ancient practice”. After Saul of Tarsus, a murderer of Christians, was confronted by God on the way to Damascus, he did not eat or drink anything for 3 days, fasting, as He tried to understand what had happened, searching to understand God. P.s. This guy became Paul, one of the 12. Another example of fasting in the bible is Ester as she prepared to speak to save the lives of her people. On the other hand, Jesus defended the disciples, saying they didn’t need to fast while the bride groom (Jesus) was with them, but after Jesus left, they fasted.
Turning back to Matthew 4 however, there is a lot to learn in just these few verses. When Jesus is tested by the devil and he temps his to simply turn the rock into bread, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8. Now, J.P brings up that there may be a very specific reason for quoting from Deuteronomy, because of the similarities between the situation as the people in Deuteronomy wandering around in the dessert as they wait to enter the promise land and Jesus’ situation as he is tested by the devil .
Here are just a few of them:
- Both led into the wilderness by the Spirit
-Forty years in the wilderness – Forty days fasting in the wilderness
-Testing in Deuteronomy 8 = same Greek word as tempting in Matthew 4
-Both caused hunger
- Joshua led out of promise land= Jesus is the same Greek word as Joshua and both are leading to a promised land…. Jesus’ promise land is just forever.
(If you want to see these comparisons better, look at the notes or listen to the sermon here….. he does a much better job at explaining this than I have tonight)
J.P. Makes three other really important points that really stick out to me.
1. Fasting can be used to prepare for tests but fasting in itself is also a test. When we succeed, it makes Satan mad; when we fail, God still loves us.
2. The Devil tries to use a twisted view of God against us. When the devil temps Jesus, he suggests that Jesus just turn the stone into bread. This may be an example of the Devil playing on how God satisfied the hunger of his people wandering in the dessert with manna so it’s “okay” for Jesus to do this and not be cheating. Jesus knows the reality of it all however and refuses to turn to anything but the Lord. Our thinking should not be “I’ll turn to manna instead of bread.” It should be “I turn to God, instead of Manna, instead of Bread. (This brings up another issue of substituting one addiction for another…. )
3. God fed the hunger of his people with manna they did not know. Often we doubt what God can do because we limit him with the things we think could fix the problem. God has this “super power” however to satisfy our utmost being with things that we don’t know of or understand. He is not limited by what we have in this world, our tools, our technologies, or our faith. Also, Jesus said that that man does not live by bread alone but by everything that comes out of his mouth. What comes out of God’s mouth? Everything that is of God.
So tomorrow, I will be feasting on the fast with the Father…. With a joyful heart <3
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