Spiritual Disciplines: Fasting (Don't Spoil Your Appetite)

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the Discipline of Fasting
Matthew 62, 5, 16 ...when you give to the
poor...when you pray...whenever you fast....
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the Discipline of Fasting
Definition Fasting is abstinence from
anything which is legitimate in and of itself for
the sake of some special spiritual purpose. There
are many bodily functions which are right and
normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for
special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances
should be controlled. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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the Discipline of Fasting
1 Corinthians 75 Stop depriving one another,
except by agreement for a time, so that you may
devote yourselves to prayer, and come together
again so that Satan will not tempt you because of
your lack of self-control.
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the Discipline of Fasting
Definition Fasting is abstinence from
anything which is legitimate in and of itself for
the sake of some special spiritual purpose. D.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• For others approval
• For self-righteous pride

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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• The fasting of Jesus
• The value of Spirit-directed self-denial

hunger for God is spiritual, not physical. And
we are less sensitive to spiritual appetites when
we are in bondage to physical ones. This means
that fasting is a way of awakening us to latent
spiritual appetites by pushing the domination of
physical forces from the center of our lives.
John Piper
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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• The fasting of Jesus
• The value of Spirit-directed self-denial
• Fasting helps us to...
• Expose our sin

Normally we meet God in his good gifts and turn
every enjoyment into worship with thanksgiving.
But from time to time we need to test ourselves
to see if we have begun to love his gifts in
place of God. John Piper
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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• The fasting of Jesus
• The value of Spirit-directed self-denial
• Fasting helps us to...
• Expose our sin
• Express our grief

Joel 21213 Yet even now, declares the Lord,
Return to Me with all your heart, and with
fasting, weeping and mourning and rend your
heart and not your garments.
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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• The fasting of Jesus
• The value of Spirit-directed self-denial
• Fasting helps us to...
• Expose our sin
• Express our grief
• Overcome our enslavement

Philippians 319 ...their god is their belly...
1 Corinthians 612 All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are profitable. All things are
lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by
anything.
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the Discipline of Fasting

• False fasting
• The fasting of Jesus
• The value of Spirit-directed self-denial
• Fasting helps us to...
• Expose our sin
• Express our grief
• Overcome our enslavement
• Receive Gods guidance

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Applying the Discipline of Fasting

• - Check your motives -
• - Start small -
• - Listen -

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the Discipline of Fasting

• Heightens perception and strengthens the will
• Helps us to perceive and to control our physical
  appetites
• Helps us to perceive and to ignore our hunger for
  the things of the world
• Helps to arouse within us a deeper hunger for God

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Fasting is calculated to bring a note of
urgency into our praying, and to give force to
our pleading in the court of heaven. The man who
prays with fasting is giving heaven notice that
he is truly in earnest. Not only so, but he is
expressing his earnestness in a
divinely-appointed way. He is using a means that
God has chosen to make his voice to be heard on
high. Arthur Wallis, Gods Chosen Fast
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