How To Fast: Christian Fasting Bible Study | Study the Bible with Me
I think a fasting as I think of tithing it's not a law or commandment that we
must follow clearly in the Bible but Jesus did talk about both and I started
to wonder how come people in our society don't fast more often at least I don't
hear it too much so today we'll be talking about some scriptures relating
to fasting I already did the header in the scripture that I wanted to study in
relation to fasting Matthew 6 verses 16 through 18 and Mark chapter 9 verses 14
through 29 which is Matthew 6 16 and says when you fast do not look sumber as
the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others they are
fasting truly I tell you they have received their reward in full but when
you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious
to others that you are fasting but only to your father who is unseen and your
father who sees what is done in secret will reward you
so that verses 16 17 and 18 and even though that's kind of lengthy I am going
to write it out so I'll write it out and then I'll be right back what exactly is
fasting fasting is abstaining from typically food and using that time that
you would be you know either eating or you know whatever it is that you're
abstaining from to pray and it's really denying our flesh in order to strengthen
our spirit to get closer to God I'm gonna write that so I wrote fasting as
abstaining from something such as food and using that time to pray and seek God
and we deny our flesh to grow in spirit what can we fast one so we can fast from
food some people spend a lot of time on social media social media fast is
something that I practice very often social media has a
tendency to make us compare ourselves to others and you know getting a snapshot
of some of those life based on social media is pretty toxic because you don't
see anything else that happens in their lives and so we kind of compare
ourselves to them and it's just not healthy so you know some people may even
benefit from a social media fast it's important that if you have any medical
issues that you can't assume from foods so if you're pregnant or breastfeeding
for example or if you have diabetes or anything like that then there's other
things that you can do instead and social media fast is one of them or
maybe you know you spend a lot of time playing video games you know abstaining
from video games and fasting during that time using that time to spend with God
to deny our flesh in order to grow in spirit can be considered a fast so why
am i fasting and this has a lot to do with motives let's refer back to this
scripture up here so it's saying when you fast so notice the word when is the
first part of that scripture Jesus is saying when we fast not if we fast so
when you fast I mean that we should all as Christians fast do not look some bar
as the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others they're
fasting so you don't have to you know tell everyone that you're fasting and
you know it says wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others you're
fasting put oil on your head or you know make yourself look presentable look
normal act normal you don't have to make it
known or post it on Facebook that you're fasting and that you're doing some great
religious sacrifice because this scripture says that when you do that
that is your reward right that in there you know you won't gain anything from
that you're not growing spiritually and you know God doesn't honor that but it
says your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you so why am i
fasting what are my motives I'm gonna write when I fast I should do it in
secret so this last part of the scripture says
your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you
and that actually reminds me of Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 which is
right above this scripture on fasting actually so if you just go up a little
bit you'll see though Matthew chapter 6
verses 1 through 4 says be careful not to practice your righteousness in front
of others to be seen by them if you do you will have no reward from your father
in heaven so when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others
truly I tell you they have received their reward in full but when you give
to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so
that your giving may be done in secret then your father who sees what is done
in secret will reward you so God also relates that to giving so give in secret
God wants us to do things not for the attention of man but to honor him so I'm
gonna write that down so I put given secret and don't act religious
quote/unquote for the attention of man so we really have to check our motives
when we're fasting and making sure that we're not walking around looking sad and
oh I'm so hungry and I'm fasting and look at the sacrifice I'm doing for God
because that's your reward right there and you'll pretty much get nothing out
of it so check your motives when your pet when you're fasting and then how
long will I fast so the Bible is not too clear on fasting it doesn't really give
you know a perfect formula I wrongly believe that God gives us a free will
for a reason obviously but you know how long will I
fast one thing that I am going to personally do is to just start small I
think trying to jump right in and saying that you'll do a forty day fast of just
water you know for example it might be a little bit difficult but instead maybe
just try fasting from breakfast once a week and see how that goes and ease your
way into fasting fasting is something that I used to do on a regular basis I
used to fast every single Wednesday when I was in high school and I was so close
to God during that time and I really felt like I avoided a lot
of the temptations that normal teenagers go through and that kind of really
nicely brings me into the next scripture which is Mark chapter 9 verses 14
through 29 and I'm not gonna write that out because it's kind of long but I will
read it to you so mark chapter 9 verses 14 through 29 says when they came to the
other disciples they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law
arguing with them as soon as all the people saw Jesus they were overwhelmed
with wonder and ran to greet him what are you arguing with them about he asked
a man in the crowd answered teacher I brought you my son who was possessed by
a spirit that has robbed him of speech whenever it seizes him it throws him to
the ground he foams at the mouth gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid I asked your
disciples to drive out the spirit but they could not you unbelieving
generation jesus replied how long shall I stay with you how long shall I put up
with you bring the boy to me so they brought him when the spirit saw Jesus it
immediately threw the boy into a convulsion he fell to the ground and
rolled around foaming at the mouth Jesus asked the boy's father how long has he
been like this from childhood he answered it often it
has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him
but if you can do anything take pity on us and help us if you can said Jesus
everything is possible for one who believes immediately the boy's father
exclaimed I do believe help me overcome my unbelief when Jesus saw that a crowd
was running to the scene he rebuked the impure spirit you deaf and mute spirit
he said I command you come out of him and never enter him again the spirit
shrieked convulsed him violently and came out the boy looked so much like a
corpse that many said he's dead but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted
him to his feet and he stood up after Jesus had gone indoors his disciples
asked him privately why couldn't we drive it out he replied
this kind can come out only by prayer I have a little footnote in my Bible and
actually in the King James Version say the same thing it says this kind can
only come out by prayer and fasting so that's so important
Jesus basically drove out a particular demon from someone and he said that
there are certain things that can only be changed through fasting and also if
you think about it when did Jesus fast he fasted right after he got baptized
from John the Baptist and he was about to enter ministry Jesus fasted I'm gonna
write that down so Jesus fasted right before he answered ministry and during
that fast he was tempted in in many ways I'm actually just gonna go there so it's
in Matthew 11 okay I was wrong it was Matthew 4 so I'm gonna write that down
Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus is tested in the world on earth so in Matthew 4 it
says that 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 and the tempter came to him and said if you're the Son
of God tell these stones to become bread jesus answered it is written man shall
not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God and
Satan kept going on and trying to tempt Jesus and Jesus kept answering with the
word of God basically that's what he used as his weapon so so many lessons
can be found here when Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights so first of all
Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness so God you know the Holy
Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness so a place where he was alone rough
conditions it doesn't sound like a fun place to be
and out in the wilderness he was tempted and the second verse Matthew chapter 4
verse 2 says that he was hungry after 40 days and 40 nights Jesus was fully human
so he had all the feelings that we did except he did not sin and so when he was
feeling physically weak because he was fasting he was spiritually strong and
then the devil came to him and said you know if your son of God tell these
stones to become bread and Jesus replied with Scripture and again the devil said
in verse 5 you're the son of God throw yourself down and the devil even tempted
and quoted scripture himself but then jesus replied obviously you know the
devil misquoted and took it out of context but then jesus replied it is
also written do not put the Lord your God to the test and you know he would
have a comeback for everything that Satan would try to tempt him with so so
again fasting and studying the word while you fast helps equip us with grip
sure to combat temptation I always like to do a section at the end of any Bible
study or even when I take survey notes of application and prayer and so
application I'm just going to write what I want fast and why if you have certain
situations in your life that you really want to pray and fast and get closer to
God during that time maybe some of you are struggling with depression some
addiction whatever it is or maybe of a family member that's dealing with that
or maybe you just want to get closer to God and you want to start fasting but
you just don't know how start to think about you know when can I fast what can
I do to kind of implement this into my life I've written down days and
committed to days and times that I want to fast for the month of June and I'm
gonna start small with this is my June prayer bullet journal set up and I've
marked it on my calendar I don't know if you can see it I wrote down on my
calendar that every Wednesday I will fast and I wrote it down because I want
to commit to it and you know whenever I do it I actually want to check it off I
use this calendar as a tracker I write down you know what I did to study the
word for that day and so I want to include fasting in that as well and then
the last part that I always like to include as well is a prayer and this is
very personal and I'll change for everyone so if that's something that you
want to write out I feel like writing down prayer is great because then I can
always go back and read what I've written and I get to pray about it again
or I get to write you know if that prayer was answered or you know whatever
it is that I want to write about it so I hope this video was
helpful it's a topic that is kind of difficult and again this is just kind of
how I interpret the word and what I think God is trying to tell us through
his word if you have any questions please comment it and thank you so much
for always watching and I'll see you next time