
Fasting
“This is our month of fasting,” the young guide looked at me.
“Do Christians fast?” he continued.
“Oh yes,” I replied.
“Every year?” he was eager to hear my answer.
“You know what Ahmed,” I replied, “Jesus said (you can read it in the Injil Matthew 6 from verses 16) ‘when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen…’ Here Jesus talks about our Heavenly Father, God.
Jesus did not command us to fast, but he encouraged and expected us to fast at different times. We have a relationship with Him. Just like you have a relationship with your mother or close friend. You want to please him or her. With a true Christian and Jesus, it is the same. When we are very serious in hearing His voice on a certain matter, we might feel that we want to fast. Or when we feel that we want to grow and understand more about the wonder of God’s love in our lives, we may decide to fast. This is a personal thing, not a legalistic following of rules. We as Christians love Jesus dearly and we always want to please God. We want to know God more and more personally, this is the way we grow spiritually, by listening to His voice and obeying and following Him.
But please tell us about your fasting and why do yóú fast?”
If you want to know more, why don’t you write to us and together we can discover more about fasting and following and loving and obeying God!