MATTHEW 6:16-18
“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
Motivation monitor
I wonder how much of what happens in the life of the church is actually done for God and not other people. I will never know, and it really is not my place to investigate this in others, but I do need to examine my own motives. I confess, last Sunday we had a visitor who is someone I look up to. He and his family stopped in unexpectedly and I immediately found myself thinking about the quality of the sermon, the songs we were singing and what this man would think about them. I wanted to impress him.
My next thought was the voice of the Holy Spirit convicting me of pride. I had to bow in prayer, and asked my wife to pray with/for me, in repentance for my selfish attitude and that God would help me not to “see” this man while I was preaching, but that I would preach for God’s glory. God worked in my life in that service and this man disappeared from my thoughts while I was sharing from God’s Word.
Jesus is a heart doctor not a fashion guru. He wants to hook up the heart monitor to help us check our motives in service. Serving to please the pastor, board, to fill empty spots, or because we always have, is not the right motivation. Service to God must be exactly that: service to God. Our motivational vector must always point towards God. Only then will our service yield eternal rewards.
Holy heart surgeon I continue to need your touch in my life. I confess my tendency to avert my eyes from you to others. Help me to stay focused on you in every area of my life so that you will receive the glory in all I do. Thank you for your grace and strength this past Sunday. You are great! - Dan Jones
Fasting? Pooh!
I hate fasting. I love food too much.
“Too much” are probably the operative words here. In truth, I use food as a stress reliever; bad news not only for my girth but for my relationship with God. I moved from eastern
Lest God think that food serves only as a source of stress relief, I really do appreciate the marvelous idea he thought up – make humans to need food to survive and add a blessed bonus, taste buds! Put sugar in the earth, and rhubarb and strawberry plants, and whalah(!) strawberry rhubarb pie. What a blessing. Cocoa plants and cows make possible gooey Baby Ruth candy bars surrounded in milk chocolate.
I love nibbling on Nabisco’s Cheese Nips! Thank God for wheat, salt, and cows; and of course trees that turn into boxes to hold these tasty morsels. Speaking if grain, my wife made deliciously moist zucchini bread at summer’s end - from fresh garden zucchini! Sadly, (happily for her) she ate the last piece the other day (L) while I stood by drooling.
I love food so much I, perhaps more than many others, maybe even more than the hypocrites of Jesus’ day, should follow the example of my spiritual forefather, John Wesley. He fasted weekly. Many other spiritual giants did the same thing. Sure, Jesus defended his disciples’ lack of fasting. But I don’t think he’d defend my love affair with food.
There are many good reasons to fast. For me, the top one is probably sorting out who (what) really is the love of my life. Who (what) is my ultimate source of comfort? Do I worship the Creator or his delicious creation? Getting these sorted out not only leads to better spiritual health, but my body just might pat me on the back too.
Father, I confess that my practice of what is right lags behind my knowledge of what’s right. Thank you for your patience and for your convicting word today. Help me move to the point where I eat to live rather than live to eat. If fasting helps keep my relationship with you primary and my relationship with food healthy, I’ll fast. And I won’t mope around in misery when I do it. - Mike Leamon
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