The Rules Around Prayer & Fasting

Introducing You to the Rules of Prayer & Fasting

Leaving Ordinary Prayer & Fasting Behind – Part 4

Ordinary Christians (of course I mean small letter ‘c’, christians) perform the exercise of prayer and fasting like this. First, when they fast, they make it obvious for others to see. In other words they make a show of it. The goal of the exercise isn’t for others to see you, but to accomplish a specific goal. See our previous lesson. For some strange reason, they want others to know how spiritual and religious they are. Secondly, they try their best to show how tough it is to fast by looking miserable. Think about that for a moment. Shouldn’t we want to set an example that’s attractive or inviting, not one that deters? When we’re coaching our team of pray-ers (people who pray) we say we’re in the business of selling prayer. It’s our goal to make it as inviting and appealing that others see as we possibly can. That’s next level prayer. The final thing that happens when fasting is this: The part they don’t know is that there is no future reward they will receive other than the spectacle they’re making of themselves. Here it is one goes through the exercise and all they get from it is the show they put on. That’s not the result we want.

What’s curious about making a spectacle of fasting, is that the scripture speaks towards the point. To be more impacting, Jesus is the speaker who brings these actions to the attention of church-people like you and me. ^[1] Go figure. It would be ordinary people who’d contaminate such a powerful tool (fasting) for the rest of the church.  Don’t be surprised when other church-people insert themselves into any situation and contaminate the point, the goal, and the purpose; Jesus calls such people hypocrites. The word hypocrites simply means actor, a person who puts on a false appearance. So if you need a definition for what’s a hypocrite, it’s those who contaminate good and useful things for their own selfish desire. By the way, anytime you see a selfish act, it’s never a Godly act. People who think of “self” more, think of God less. You see, selfishness is the opposite of love–God. 

Fasting should never become a way to entertain others nor is it a way for believers to impress other believers. Fasting should always be a pact between a believer and their God. Fasting is not an act of misery, but an act that brings much excitement because it brings many results when combined with prayer.

Question: What has your experience been like when fasting?

[1] ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:16‬ ‭NLT‬‬, Bible.com, accessed May 3, 2023, http://bible.com/116/mat.6.16.nlt

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.