The Importance of Fasting

Sermon by Ps Daniel Khong at the Faith Community Baptist Church on 5 July 2025.

Scripture: Matthew 6:16-18

Jesus teaches about fasting in the Sermon of the Mount, that people should not make it look too obvious that they are fasting. Instead, they should go on their normal life during fasting.

It seems that we fast when we want to up the ante, when we feel that prayer is simply not enough. Fasting is turning away from ourselves and turn our focus back to God.

Why people fast?

1. Repentance - Nehemiah 9:1-2

2. Grief - 1 Chronicles 10: 11-12

3. Seeking guidance - Acts 14:23

What Christian basics does fasting teach us to live out?

1. Denying ourselves

We have this natural tendency to focus on ourselves, but God calls us to deny ourselves. Jesus asks us to give up our own way, take up our cross and follow Him. Fasting means denying something that we would naturally do such as eating.

2. Drawing close to God

Simple denying something in itself is not enough. It is not just abstinence but also alignment to God. When the Pharisees fasted, their purpose is to draw attention to themselves. But they did not align to God. If we fast 1 meal, the time will be spent with God - praying, reading Scripture.

3. Desiring more of God

If there is any change thru prayer and fasting, we will desire more of God. If we have no desire, it is decade we have nibbled too much of the world that we no longer have room for God. We are so stuffed of the good that we have no room for the great. Perhaps a fast might express or increase the thirst for God.

A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul, even the bitter taste sweet. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

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