Fast Secretly

 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly - Mathew 6:17, 18.

               God will reward us openly when we fast in secret. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward - Matthew 6:16. Anna, a prophetess of God never left the temple of God and spent fasted and prayed This woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day - Luke 2:37.

               Jesus spent forty days and nights in the wilderness fasting and praying before He began God’s work on this earth. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry - Matthew 4:2. We need to spend time with God in fasting and praying to know what God had called us to do. Nehemiah fasted and prayed when he learned that wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates are burned with fire. So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven - Nehemiah 1:4.

          Fasting in secret transforms our prayer life and helps us to have a close relationship with God. Let us humble ourselves in fasting and praying. I humbled myself with fasting - Psalm 35:13. When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach - Psalm 69:10. Let us seek God in fasting by presenting ourselves as living sacrifice before Him. God who sees our secret fasting will reward us openly.                                              

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Let us seek Your face in fasting and praying. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.