"Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:16-18 (KJV)
You know fasting, among other things is something that people like to advertise to look more spiritual. They try to draw attention to themselves, and say "I'm fasting, I'm so spiritual..." They might look sad so you'll say, "Why the sad face?" and they'll reply, "I'm fasting, I'm just so hungry. But I'm doing it for Jesus!" If they're doing it for the attention and the praise of men, then they're not doing it for Jesus! In our PERSONAL relationship with Jesus, there are some things that we are to just leave in private between us and the Lord. Fasting is one of those things. Let the Lord reward you for your fasting, there is no need to try and get the praise of men. Once you go around telling people, you've lost whatever reward you would've gotten from the Lord.
There are so many things that people like to do to look spiritual, to draw attention to themselves. The truth is that we're not supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves, but we're supposed to be drawing attention to the Lord! We shouldn't be standing in the street praying, we shouldn't be advertising that we're fasting, these are things that we should do in private with the Lord. The goal of being a Christian isn't for people to say, "Look at that guy, he's so spiritual!" We're supposed to be a light to the world, we're supposed to set an example and draw people to Jesus and not away from Him. Believe it or not, trying to make people believe you're spiritual doesn't draw them to God... It draws them away. If people actually believe that you're all that spiritual, then it makes them feel lesser than or they just end up thinking that all of us Christians are hypocrites. You'll end up hearing them say things like, "He was praying in the street, and now he's using profanity in private! What a hypocrite!" I'll tell you I get really bugged when I can tell people are just trying to look spiritual. I mean it pinches a nerve for me, because when they act like that you can just tell that they think they're better than everyone else. You can only imagine the number of people that they're turning away from God with their attitudes, it is really disturbing. Does anyone else bugged over this?
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who've sinned against us. Help us not to be like the hypocrites and help us to keep the things that we should keep private, private. May we draw attention to you and not to ourselves. In Jesus name. A-men!
