Would you eat horseradish cheesecake? Decorate cookies with brussel-sprout frosting?
Isaiah 5:20 (NIV)
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil . . .
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
Folks can claim something evil is really good–but that doesn’t make it sweet and right.
Are you like the people in this psalm, staggering under the weight of your worries?
Psalm 60:2-3 (NIV)
You have shaken the land and torn it open;
mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
You have shown your people desperate times;
you have given us wine that makes us stagger.
Or, rephrased by Isaac Watts:
“The terror of one frown of thine
Melts all our strength away;
Like men that totter drunk with wine,
We tremble in dismay.”
The Psalms of David, Psalm 60
Does a taste of terror make you stumble?
Walk by faith–taste the goodness of the Lord.
Who’s telling you “don’t eat”?
Colossians 2:21-22 (VOICE)
You hear, “Don’t handle this! Don’t taste that! Don’t even touch it!” but everything they are obsessed about will eventually decay with use. These rules are just human commands and teachings.
Let God tell you “do” and “don’t.” You won’t go wrong.
Wisdom is to my soul as dessert is to my tongue.
Proverbs 24:13 (NIV)
Wisdom is like honey for you.
Sweet wisdom, please. And supersize it!
Paul and Barnabas fasted, along with church leaders.
Acts 14:23 (ESV)
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Paul, Barnabas and the church leaders fasted first, then committed. It’s a sequence worth copying. Sometimes we commit first and seek God later–when things aren’t working out
Start right.
Ezra 8:21 (NIV)
I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him . . .
Why a humble fast?
“There is a treatise by an old Puritan, called, ‘The soul fattening institution of fasting,’ and he gives us his own experience that during a fast he has felt more intense eagerness of soul in prayer than he had ever done at any other time.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
A Desperate Case–How to Meet It (sermon), 1864
A humble fast makes for powerful prayer.
The people complained and God answered.
Isaiah 58:3-4 (MSG)
“Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?”
“Well, here’s why: The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit . . .You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground.”
I can fast for my own reasons, God’s. I get cranky. I take it out on others. I put angry space between me and God.
Zechariah 7:4-5 (NIV)
Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?'”
If God asked you if you fasted, and if you fasted for him, what would you answer?
Hopefully, you have a better response than Zechariah’s crowd:
Zechariah 7:11
But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.
Matthew 6:16 (NTE)
When you fast, don’t be gloomy like the play-actors. They make their faces quite unrecognizable, so that everyone can see they’re fasting. I’m telling you the truth: they have received their reward in full.
Notice what Jesus did and didn’t say. He said when you fast, not if you fast.
So, if you’re fasting this Lenten season, make sure you’re doing it for God and not show.
And if you’re not fasting now, then when? (you don’t have to tell us, it’s between you and God).
Lots of folks fast during Lent. The idea calls for some serious thought.
Joel 1:14 (MSG)
Declare a holy fast,
call a special meeting,
get the leaders together.
Round up everyone in the country.
Get them into God’s Sanctuary
for serious prayer to God.
It’s possible to fast from things other than food–social media, TV, anything eating into your God-time. But food is the most common–whether it’s one type (meat or sweets), one meal, or walking away from all food for a season.
But know this: a holy fast has a spiritual purpose. Otherwise, it’s just a diet.
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