You May Be Mocked, But Fast Anyway

# 286 – We are continuing a series on fasting. This spiritual discipline that is connected with promise of blessing from the Lord is widely neglected in the church today. We have this tendency to think that fasting was an Old Testament things for prophets with sackcloth’s over their bodies and ashes over their heads. As we pointed out last time, this is simply not true. Jesus point blank states that His followers WILL fast. (See Mt 6:17, and Mt 9:15) Many times in the Old Testament, fasting was quite public, this seems to fly in the face of our Lord's New Testament admonition to keep it between ourselves and God, but it seems that these public fasts were undertaken for the welfare of the people at large, rather than individuals. One thing you should know when fasting and that is people will mock what you are doing. They will try to convince you that what you are doing is silly. In Psalm 69:10-13 we read, “When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing I became a byword to them. I am the talk of the gate and the drunkards make songs about me.” Imagine that, people singing mocking songs about a a man desperately trying to hear from God. I wonder how the song went? I once knew a man from Judah, who tried to do without foodah. He thought it was neat, to give up his meat, but we think it's a lot of hooyah. But seriously the devil will use any means he can to discourage a fast, because he knows what a powerful tool it is. The uninformed think the spiritual disciplines of praying, giving to the poor, and fasting are silly...well, let me encourage you, purpose in your heart to practice them anyway, because each discipline mentioned in the sermon on the mount comes with a promised reward from God. Listen to how the psalmist answers his mockers. He says in v13, “But as for me, my prayer is to you O Lord.”  You see, he fasted with the right motivation. He fasted for God alone. He was saying, “Lord, this fast is for you, not for them. And by the way, we can say, according to this verse, that fasting is a form of praying.  In fact all three of these spiritual disciplines are forms of prayer. We pray with our hands through our acts of mercy giving to the poor. We pray with our lips by vocalizing our prayers, and we pray with our body when we deprive it for a season, asking God to act on our behalf with His promised reward. Father, help me to overcome the taunts and doubts that the evil one brings my way. Grant me the resolve to practice spiritual disciplines.