Real Fasting And It’s Amazing Outcomes

Back in the Old Testament’s days fasting was used as an expression of being serious about something; seeking the Lord with prayer and fasting showed that they meant "business".

However, it is interesting to note how Jesus Christ God’s Son exemplifies: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:9-14

Stealthy or in louder steps, this self right-standing is so present even today in the Body of Christ! And people do things out of zeal for God, but if there are comparisons "I do better than…" it means that in the back of our minds there is a seed of self confidence instead of there being 100% confidence in what God did for us.

No amount of fasting from your side will make God love or accept you more! You are already loved and accepted to the maximum of God’s love because it is not our fasting or any other good deed for that matter that moves the hart of God. God’s heart is already moved, when we fast our hearts starts moving more towards God (if we fast with the right motivation and not of some outward imposed rule).

God is straight forward when explaining the kind of fasting He expects from people. In the excerpt below the people were disappointed that God did not answer according to their expectations in spite of their fasting:

'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD ?

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. …The mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 58:3-12

If under the law the promises are so great, under God’s grace today we receive them all trough Jesus Christ. All these wonderful benefits of fasting are for us in Christ, have already been achieved by Him and ours praying and fasting turns our heart more to God, not His more to ours. May we all benefit all these wonderful promises!