Saturday April 20, 2013

Read Matthew 6:16-18. Zechariah 8:19

In a goldfish eating contest in Oakland, California, Leonard McMahan swallowed 501 goldfish in about four hours. Back then he set the new world record (P L Tan, Encyclopedia of 77,000 Illustrations).

 

At the Metropolitan hospital in New York doctors performed an operation on a patient. During the operation the surgical team counted more than 300 coins, including quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies and subway tokens. They said they found broken thermometers, can openers, knives, forks, spoons, nuts, bolts, chains and car keys. (P L Tan, Encyclopedia of 77,000 Illustrations).

 

Try to imagine what the above two people would look like after their particular feats. Would our gold fish eating friend be filled with joy? I doubt it. Would our metal-object-eating friend be smiling and beaming with happiness? I doubt it.

 

The Pharisees and religious people of Jesus’ day similarly lacked any joy or contentment in fasting. They would disfigure their faces and make a show. They would boast in their pain and distress. Jesus sternly condemns such boasting and showy pretence.

 

Christian fasting, on the contrary, is not to be a showy performance of pain and suffering. It is not to be an outward marker of piety or personal devotion. Rather Christian fasting is to be a time of joy and contentment. It is to be a time of drawing near to the Lord, of being close and intimate with Him and being filled with His Spirit. It is a time of prayerful reflection and meditation in which the externals and physical aspects of life give way to the spiritual and eternal. Even though fasting can be painful and arduous, Christians are not to focus on the negative but on the positive of God.

 

The Lord God Almighty spoke of a time when fasting would become a time of joy and happiness. Through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour and through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, that time of joy has come upon us.

 

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

 

Thanks:

 

Supplication:

¥ Ask the Lord to work powerfully in tomorrow’s services. Pray that God would prepare each and every single person to meet with Himself and that He would be working powerfully to grow us in Christ-likeness and humility. Pray that the Word would be powerfully proclaimed tomorrow in both services and that the believers would be equipped and the non believers convicted to bow the knee and to confess Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

¥ Pray for the work at Teen Challenge in Toowoomba. Pray that the clients there would grow to know Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour and that all the needs would be provided for by the Lord.

 

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. If you have fasted share about the joy that you experienced. If you didn’t have joy, why do you think that was so?

2. Is there a place for cells to fast in the church? Please explain.

3. Having studied fasting for a week, share your thoughts about fasting.