Fasting Before God
Matthew 6:16–18
“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
World English Bible
Three times in this chapter Jesus says “when,” and the third one makes modern readers shift in their seats. When you give: yes. When you pray: of course. When you fast: wait, was that assumed? Apparently so. Jesus speaks of fasting the way He speaks of giving and praying: not as an elite practice for spiritual athletes, but as part of the ordinary rhythm of a disciple’s life.
The hypocrites had found a way to monetize even hunger. They disfigured their faces (made themselves visibly gaunt and miserable) so the whole street could appraise their devotion. Jesus’ instruction is almost playful by contrast: anoint your head, wash your face, look like a man on his way to a feast. Let your hunger be a secret shared with the Father alone. The discipline stays; the performance is cancelled.
But why fast at all? Because fasting is the body’s way of telling the truth. When you voluntarily set aside food (a good gift, a legitimate need) you preach a sermon to your own soul: I do not live by bread alone. Every pang of hunger becomes a bell, ringing the reminder that there is a deeper emptiness only God can fill. Fasting takes our vague spiritual hunger and makes it physical, focused, honest. It detaches us, one skipped meal at a time, from the comfortable assumption that we cannot do without our comforts.
Perhaps that is why this discipline has fallen so quiet in an age of endless appetite. We are being formed daily by a culture that treats every desire as a need and every need as urgent. Fasting interrupts the training. It is how a person practices wanting God more than what God gives.
And Jesus attaches a promise: the Father who sees in secret will reward you. Not with applause, but with Himself, and with the quiet strengthening of a soul that is learning where its true food comes from. Hunger, offered to God, becomes a doorway.
Reflect
- Why is fasting absent or rare in my life: neglect, fear of discomfort, or never really believing it mattered?
- What appetite (food, screens, comfort, approval) has quietly convinced me I cannot do without it?
- Am I willing to let my body preach to my soul this week that God is more necessary than bread?
Pray
Consider prayerfully what fast you might take up this week (a meal, a day, a habitual comfort) and choose honestly. When you fast, tell no one but the Father, and offer each pang of hunger as a prayer for deeper hunger for Christ. Thank Him that He sees in secret and rewards with nothing less than Himself.