“What do we do now?” and “Where do we go from here?”. These are two questions I have asked the Lord a lot lately, especially concerning our church. So much has happened over this past year, and so much has changed so quickly ever since the C-19 pandemic hit our shores. Now, more than ever, I have felt the need to be guided by my Heavenly Father.
Last night I read Matthew 9 vs 14 – 17. In these scriptures Jesus was asked by the disciples of John the Baptist why His own disciples did not fast as they did. In Matthew 9 vs 15, we see His reply to them, but then Jesus says a rather strange thing in Matthew 9 vs 16 – 17: “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved”.
In summary, Jesus was referring to Himself and His way of life as the unshrunk cloth and the new wine, and to the minds of the Pharisees and Jews as the old garment and old wineskins. The Pharisees and Jews at the time could not accept or receive Jesus or His teachings because they were so steeped in their old mindsets and ways. But what do mindsets this have to do with fasting? Why did Jesus include those words as part of His answer to the disciples of John? Let us look at it this way.
Firstly, fasting was always accompanied by prayer in biblical times. We see this in Acts 14 vs 23: Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. Secondly, fasting prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, was mostly associated with grieving (Nehemiah 1 vs 4), repentance (Joel 2 vs 12), and drawing closer to God to hear from Him (Exodus 34 vs 28).
If we look at fasting in association with drawing closer to God, neither the Pharisees nor Jews could get any closer to God because Jesus was the only way to Him – John 14 vs 6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. In terms of fasting to hear from God, He was already speaking to them through Jesus – John 12 vs 49: For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And in terms of fasting for repentance, Jesus was already offering forgiveness (Matthew 9 vs 2: Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you”).
Hence, the solutions they were fasting for were already there in the form of Jesus himself. They could fast as much as they wanted to, but they could not receive the answer that God had already provided because they were so fixated on the old ways. What does this have to do with us?
Fasting today is more likely associated with drawing closer to God and hearing from Him rather than with grieving and repentance. Believers today often fast and pray for God’s guidance and intervention in situations and circumstances. Sometimes when we fast and pray though, we have our minds set on certain outcomes, but the answers and solutions that God has may not always be what we expect.
We may have our hearts set on something from the past – fasting and praying for the return of an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, to be reemployed by a former employer, or even for things to return to normal, but what if God has something new in store for us? We may expect God to work through the same people or in the same way as before. But what if God wanted to work through someone different or in a new way?
Like the Pharisees and Jews, we can fast and pray as much as we want to, but our own expectations and mindsets may prevent us from seeing and receiving the solutions that God has for us. Isaiah 55:8 – 9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts”.