Why should you, as Jesus commanded, anoint your head and wash your face when you fast?

Hi, welcome to today’s little lesson. Regular viewers know that we’ve been working our way through Jesus’s most famous sermon, “The Sermon on the Mount.” And we come across this section in Matthew Chapter Six where Jesus tells us that certain things that we do, we need to check our motives by doing them secretly to make sure that we’re not doing it to be seen by other people.

And we’ve already covered giving alms, and then we also covered praying. And when Jesus talks about praying in secret, it kind of follows this … I hate to call it a rabbit trail, because Jesus didn’t follow any rabbit trails. He was always led by the Holy Spirit, but he elaborates a little more in prayer.

We talked about the Lord’s Prayer, the importance of forgiveness, and he circles back around to this “check your motives” theme in Matthew chapter Six and verse number 16 whenever you fast.

Now notice he didn’t say, “If you fast,” to his disciples. He said, “Whenever you fast.” So let me point the finger of question at you. Are you a Christian who fasts?

Okay, well, you aren’t? Well, you should be. And he doesn’t lay down any rules of how often, how long. But when you fast, not if you fast.

“Do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you when you fast anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father, who is in secret. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

So why did Jesus tell his disciples to anoint their heads and wash their faces when they fast? Well, the whole point is to disguise the fact that they are fasting. Now washing your face. Well, you’re just looking like you cleaned yourself up that day. Everybody ought to wash their face everyday, right?

But apparently, there were some folks back in Jesus day who wanted everyone to know that they’re fasting, and they’re suffering, and they’re depriving themselves of food. And so, they’d make themselves kind of look as disheveled as they could and put on a gloomy face to let people know, “Oh, you are so spiritual, because, look, you’re depriving yourself of food.”

We find these people today, in the body of Christ, they’re often more subtle. But still they have subtle ways of letting you know what day of their fast that they’re currently on.

Lord help us. Lord help us. And why do you anoint your head? Well, I don’t know that for a fact, but I’m suspecting that it’s kind of the oil or the perfume that you would use to anoint your head would then create a certain aroma that people would smell when they’re around you. Like a cologne if you’re a guy, perfume if you’re a woman, or for guys, aftershave that has some kind of aroma to it.

When you fast, anyone who’s fasted knows that your breath, it really can get bad. And back in Jesus’s day, they didn’t have the benefit of toothpaste. I don’t know if they used toothbrushes or sticks or how they cleansed their mouths after eating. But a toothbrush and toothpaste, we’ve got a good substitute for anointing our head with oil, putting on some kind of a perfume or some smelling oil, that would kind of overpower the smell of the bad breath of the faster.

Okay? So I’m going to just say you don’t have to necessarily do this, literally anoint your head. Wash your face. That’s a good idea. But the whole idea here is try to keep it secret that you’re fasting, so you’re doing it as unto the Lord.

I heard …. And this applies to many things, not just praying and giving, and fasting. I heard a preacher one time tell a little story about a woman who had a beautiful voice, and she just wanted to sing in front of church and got to show off her talent and so forth. But doors just weren’t opening for her, and so she prayed passionately, “Lord, I just want to sing for you.”

And as the story goes, the Lord spoke to her very plainly and clearly, and said, “Wonderful. Go ahead.”

And you can see what is implied by all that. She’s saying, “Oh, Lord I just want to serve you.” But what she’s really saying is, “Oh Lord, I just want people to see me serving you, and I want people to know how talented and gifted I am, and how lovely my voice is.”

And so, she disguised that as, “Oh Lord, I just want to sing for you.” Trying to kind of pull the wool over God’s. Even though this is a really selfish prayer, maybe God won’t know if I phrase it in such a way. “Oh Lord, I just want to sing for you.”

And the Lord says, “Well go ahead.” Other words, “I’m ready. I’m waiting to listen. Sing for me right now. Not in front of an audience. There’s going to be no applause. This is an audience of one.”

So I think it’s good to think about in all that we do, because anything that you do in ministry … I’ve listed four things now. But anything you do, you can do it for the wrong motives, and you can fool yourself. Oh my goodness, can you fool yourself. Here’s a guy that I know this experiencially. The only way, that I know, to really test your motives is do it secretly.

And don’t do it semi-secretly in the hope that somebody will discover and they’ll even think higher of you because you were, allegedly, trying. You fooled them into thinking you were trying to do it secretly or anonymously. Well that would be like adding to the evil wouldn’t it?

Not only are you doing it for selfish motives, but you’re pretending, you’re trying to deceive people, to think you’re doing it for unselfish motives by appearing like you’re doing it for unselfish motives. I mean, the layers of deceit that we sometimes pile up. Yikes.

So do it secretly. And those of us who are preachers and teachers, what can we do? How can we … Can you teach secretly?

That’s a tough one there. I’m not sure the Lord wants to listen to our teaching. Here’s a way to test your motives. Is there anyone that you’re too good to preach or teach to?

Your preacher or teacher? You too good to teach children? You just want the big crowds? To good to just minister to one person who maybe isn’t all that appreciative, or do you got to have the crowds? See, that’s a way to test what’s really motivating you.

Okay. All right. So this pretty much completes that section of the certain amount, the motives section. So we’re going to go on next time into the whole laying up of treasures section. That’s really interesting. All right?

Thanks for joining me. See you next time.

The post Why Anoint Your Head and Wash Your Face When You Fast? appeared first on David Servant.

What happens when you fast? On our previous Little Lesson, we were talking initially about fasting and looking at the fact that it is a biblical practice, something that every Christian should do. Just like they should pray and just like they should obey any of the Lord’s commandments.

Jesus said, “When you fast, here’s what you should do.” Not if you fast, but when you fast (see Matthew 6:16-18).

So I gave a little bit of a preliminary introductory information on our previous broadcast. I just want to go a little bit deeper into it in this edition of Little Lessons because I think there might be more to say and there might be more interest.

How Your Body Responds When You Fast

When you stop eating food, your body says, “Oh my goodness! What are you doing?” Because it’s used to taking what you give it and what it digests and turning that into glucose and streaming it through your bloodstream. And when your body realizes you’re not going to get any food to the stomach, it says, “I’ve got to get something some other way,” and it begins to then burn fat cells.

And fasting is a great way to lose weight quickly. Trouble is when you do it that way, you often gain it back pretty fast when you break your fast.

I’m not recommending fasting, an extended fast, as a means of losing weight. Although, the idea of intermittent fasting has become quite popular. When, just on a regular basis, once or twice a week, you fast the whole day. And that has proven to be a wonderful way for people to lose weight.

So if you’re thinking about the weight loss benefits, maybe you should check into that.

Be Careful When Coming Off a Long Fast

But your body starts burning fat, because it has to have the energy to keep all the organs going. It’s really an interesting kind of feeling. Your stomach shrinks, you feel those hunger pains, they kind of ebb and flow, come and go. And by the time you get to the third day, your stomach says, “Okay, I get it. You’re not going to give me any food.”

Your stomach has shrunken to a degree and it’s kind of shut down. And that’s why when you break a fast, you have to be cautious. You can’t eat a big meal after several days of fasting because your stomach’s smaller. You just find, “Oh, my goodness, I’m satiated so much quicker as I break my fast.”

Because your stomach hasn’t been functioning as it normally does when you break your fast. That’s why it’s important to break your fast very, very gradually and very carefully by giving it very easy things to digest. Easier to digest fruits, for example, is something, or diluted apple juice. And that gets your stomach realizing, “Oh, okay, food’s coming down so we need to start kicking in here.”

I’ve heard stories of people who were starved in concentration camps and so forth, and when they were liberated, gorged on food and actually died from it because their bodies couldn’t handle the input of such quantities of food and such difficult foods to digest so quickly. So be very, very cautious. The longer you fast, the more cautious you need to be when you break your fast.

“ The longer you fast, the more cautious you need to be when you break your fast. —DAVID SERVANT

Fasting By Delaying Breakfast

Another way to fast is just to delay breakfast. And there are nutritionists who are advocating that that’s actually a good thing for weight control and so forth because, once your body has digested the food and processed the food and turned it into glucose to feed the cells of your body, once there’s no food and that glucose flow shuts down, the body naturally then begins to break down the fat cells to use those for fuel.

And if you haven’t eaten since dinner time and you skipped breakfast, well, you’re past the glucose phase at that point in time and there’s nothing to digest and nothing to give your body energy, and so your body will begin to naturally kick into living off of the fat cells that have been accumulated in your body. Most all of us have a little bit of that.

And it is surmised by some that that’s actually healthier than a normal breakfast, lunch, dinner routine. That our ancestors would be much more accustomed to that kind of eating cycle. That eating wasn’t as quite as regular as it always has been.

And so I’m not going to try to defend that either way, but I have certainly noticed that it’s easier for me to control my weight when I delay my breakfast till later in the morning, or till lunchtime, and just have two meals a day, rather than three meals a day. Okay?

Why You Lack Energy When Fasting

I personally have never fasted longer than about six days. And if you’re going to fast longer than a couple of days, you’re not going to be able to do yard work or do any kind of physical manual labor. Most people, anyway, would testify that, because you just feel like you’re drained of energy.

And as I’ve studied the subject of fasting over the years, again, I can’t find a Bible verse for this, but I certainly have observed this in people who have fasted for the first time. They say that when you fast your body says, “Oh, great. We’re not going to have to use up all this energy digesting food, so let’s go to work in fixing some things that need some repair, and let’s purge the body of some things that have accumulated within the fat cells that need to get out of here.”

Because we’re all kind of like waste dumps in a sense. All the stuff that comes into our bodies through the processed foods that we eat and through the air that we breathe. And so it’s a cleansing, purging thing, a very, very healthy thing for your body as toxins and other things are purged from your body.

Persevering Through the Side Effects of Fasting

So you get horrible breath. Of course, your bowels have stopped moving and you need to, of course, keep urinating because you’re going to keep on drinking. But that becomes more pure as time goes on. And for people who are fasting for the first time, that can be very, very rough because you’re breaking addictions to caffeine and so forth. You get headaches, and toxins are being released and so forth. So it can be very miserable for the first time fasting.

But here’s the encouragement. You keep on doing it on somewhat of a regular basis, once a week, once a month, whatever, and you find it gets easier each time. And you don’t have nearly the severity of rough symptoms that you did at first.

Okay? Here’s a little final tip. The harder it is for you to fast, it could be said the more important it is that you do fast. And as you practice it and it gets easier, you’re very likely to become a healthier person. All right?

All right, so that’s all for today’s Little Lesson. That’s all I’m going to say about fasting. If you want more information, we do have a little information here on this website. God bless.

The post What Happens When You Fast? appeared first on David Servant.

Should you fast? Fasting is abstaining from eating. Sometimes it could be considered abstaining from drinking as well.

There are various degrees of fasting. Perhaps the most common fast is the water-only fast. You abstain from all solid foods and just drink water and no other liquids or beverages besides water. That’s somewhat of a pure fast.

You could go beyond that and fast both food and all liquids, so no solid food, not even any water. You wouldn’t want to do that for very long, because your body needs to say hydrated to stay alive. You can go without food for weeks, probably. The average person could. But you can’t go without water for weeks, or liquids going in you. You could only survive a couple days, so I’m not an advocate of the total fast of no liquids and no solids either.

But there is such a thing as a partial fast, where you can eliminate some foods. Some people do, for example, juice fast, where they just drink juice. Hopefully more nutritious and healthy liquids than soft drinks and so forth, because that provides the nutrients that their body needs to function. They can still kind of go about their daily business because they have strength, something that you don’t have after a few days if you fast entirely from food and only drink water. You’re going to feel a loss of strength.

Practical Considerations When Fasting

So there are some practical considerations to think about if you’re going to fast. Fasting is certainly a biblical topic. Jesus gave some instructions about fasting Himself, and He said when you fast, don’t put on a long face like hypocrites do, so everybody knows they’re fasting, but anoint your head and so forth and don’t try to let everyone know. Keep it a secret. Fast in secret (see Matthew 6:16-18).

So Jesus didn’t say “if” you fast, He said “when” you fast. And He’s giving some instructions about making sure our motives are right. Basically, don’t do it to show off how spiritual you are, or how disciplined you are, to other people.

Paul gave a little bit of instruction about fasting. Not a whole lot in the New Testament, but he talked about husbands and wives not depriving each other of conjugal rights. But he said unless by agreement you agree to suspend your conjugal rights for a while, that you might devote yourselves to prayer and fasting (see 1 Corinthians 7:5).

That’s definitely the main reason for fasting. Fasting just for fasting’s sake, from a spiritual standpoint, doesn’t have a whole lot of value, other than the fact that it does require some self-discipline. Therefore, it’s somewhat akin to the kind of self-discipline that we need in other things. So for that, I suppose, fasting in itself is a good practice.

The Main Reason Christians Should Fast

But the main reason that anyone would want to fast, from a spiritual standpoint, is to be able to spend more time in prayer. I would also include more time in the Word. That’s kind of a form of prayer, isn’t it?

When you’re studying and meditating upon God’s word, that’s communicating with God. He’s communicating with you through His unchanging Word. So to spend more time doing that, wow, that’s a valuable thing. To spend more time communing with the Lord, and praising and worshiping Him and seeking Him is a wonderful thing. If that means skipping a meal, then so be it.

Fasting Doesn’t Always Have to Be for a Long Time

Again, we don’t have to think that fasting has to be some long, drawn out thing, that every fast needs to be at least 40 days.

I would also caution anybody against trying to do a 40 day fast, because that can be medically dangerous. Not everybody can handle that. In fact, the couple of 40-day fasts we read about in Scripture, they had a supernatural element to them. At the end of Jesus’s 40 day fast, Scripture talks about how angels came and ministered to Him (see Matthew 4:11). Of course, He was being tempted by the devil during part of that time. Moses, during his 40 day fast was up on a mountain in the presence of God.

So I just wouldn’t recommend that.

If you’ve never fasted before then I highly recommend fasting, but don’t try a long fast. Maybe skip one meal and make it spiritually valuable. Spend some extra time seeking the Lord in prayer and His Word, and see what happens.

What Happens When You Fast For the First Time

Now I can tell you what’s going to happen. If you’ve never fasted before, you’re going to go, “Oh my goodness, am I ever hungry! I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t eat something.”

Then when you finally break your fast, after you skip one meal and then eat at your regular time at your next meal (if you can wait that long), you’re going to feel really hungry and that food’s going to taste really good.

But if you practice fasting on somewhat of a regular basis, it actually becomes easier. I can’t explain why that is physiologically, but it is. Your body just can become accustomed to it.

Just like you sleep all night long. You don’t eat while you sleep, and somehow your body adjusts to that. If you’re a person who travels a lot internationally, like I have done, you’re messing up your sleep cycle and you’re also messing up your eating cycle. You find you’re overseas on the other side of the world, and during the day time you’re hardly hungry all day long because you’re sleeping during the time when you normally eat. Your body clock doesn’t wake you up for some reason, if you’re able to sleep all night. So it’s actually easier to fast when you’re many time zones away from where you normally live.

Advice For Those Fasting For the First Time

I’d say skip one meal or fast for one day, to see how that goes. It can be very difficult the very first time you do it. It’s going to take some self-discipline, and you’re going to be tempted to break your fast earlier than what you expected to.

But if you fast, again, on any kind of regular basis, you’ll see it gets easier. If you fast enough, you could fast for a day and hardly even miss food at all. It’s just the simplest thing that your body gets used to.

Once you reach about the third day, that’s perhaps one of the harder days of an extended fast. But maybe the third or fourth day, hunger leaves you. Of course, you’re very weak, you don’t have much strength, but you don’t have those hunger pangs that you had at first.

If you fast longer than two or three days, when you break your fast you need to do it gradually. Don’t got to McDonald’s and get a hamburger and milkshake. Just sip on a little bit of juice, or take something that’s easy to digest. If you fast for a week, you’d better be very careful when you break your fast with just small quantities of easy-to-digest food or diluted juices or something, because you want to be safe about that.

All right, well that’s just a Little Lesson about fasting. There’s some more information here on my website, if you’re interested in exploring the subject a little bit further. Thanks for joining me! God bless you.

The post Should You Fast? appeared first on David Servant.