Matthew 4
Here we read Jesus encounter with the Devil. We are told that Jesus told that a test was coming by the Spirit. The Devil was ready for it. He had been preparing for it for at least 30 years since God announced the arrival of his Son Jesus.
v2 Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. (Mess)
Jesus too spent a time preparing for the confrontation - he fasted for 40 days and nights.
Very often we think of fasting to get something to bend God's arm. If we fast then God will see we are serious. Roger Blackmore, my Pastor when I was growing up, posted something about this just the other week. Read it here.
What I do know is that Jesus fasted to get himself ready to face direct temptation from the Devil himself. We all face temptation every day. Temptation to lie, temptation to gossip, temptation to look at pornography, temptation steal, temptation to cheat, temptation to be selfish, the list goes on.
Maybe we can take an example from Jesus today. Get prepared miss a meal, miss a TV programme, miss shopping, give something up today and spend that time with Jesus talking to him about the temptation you know you are going to face, don't face it unprepared.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Simply Jesus - Fasting
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1 comments:
Good link about fasting. I've fasted in the past without really understanding why I was doing it, but with a vague idea that God would pay more attention to me. I'm realising now that it's less to do with feeling hungry and holy, and more to do with devoting time to God that would have otherwise been spent on myself.
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