9-13-10
In Matthew 9:14-15 the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus with the question, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Jesus was speaking of the disciples fasting out of desire for Him after His death. The motivation of this fast is to grow in intimacy with Jesus and to encounter Jesus in a greater way.
Jesus’ disciples experienced joy being in His presence, they felt His love and daily walked with Him, witnessing His nearness and love for them and others. Jesus told them that this joy would manifest itself as mourning or longing when He is taken from them by His death. Then His disciples would fast with same desire and consistency that John’s disciples did. Their fasting, and ours in the Bridegroom fast, is out of desire to encounter God, increase intimacy and for spiritual renewal.
Psalm 42:1: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” The bridegroom fast is centered on desire. Understanding God’s desire for us and increasing our own desire for Him. Once we taste God’s nearness, we cannot live without more of Him. We “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom.8:23) In response to this groan in our hearts, we fast for more of God.
In fasting, we position our hearts to encounter Jesus and increase our spiritual capacity to receive from God. We do not fast to motivate God to pay attention to us, but to receive the affection that He has for us. We fast not to move God’s heart, but to move ours. The Bridegroom fast is to tenderize our hearts and increase our spiritual desire for Him.
A gift God gives to us is our desire for Him, and this craving for Jesus can be both joyful and painful in our hearts. Our longing for Him has a divine purpose, to lead us to greater love for Him. It will result in us making more room for love and purity to have their full way in our hearts.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt.5:6) “Hunger is when we cannot live without more, when we make radical alterations to our lifestyles in order to pursue God. A good way to measure the reality of our hunger is to measure the extent to which we rearrange our lives, our time, our money and our comforts to pursue that for which we hunger.” (Dana Candler)
God rewards those who hunger for righteousness. One of the rewards of fasting is a breakthrough of new desires in our heart as the bonds of wickedness are broken off our lives. “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness..?”
Being the Bride of Christ speaks of the position of privilege to experience God’s desire for us, the power He has for us and the joy of being in His presence.
Blessings,
Gary