The Four Great Questions:

What is Reality?
Who is well-off? (What is Blessedness? The Good Life?)
Who is a really good person?
How does one become a really good person?

Matthew 6:5-18
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But 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; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Dear Father always near us,
may your name be treasured and loved,
may your rule be completed in us
may your will be done here on earth
in just the way it is done in heaven.
Give us today the things we need today,
and forgive us our sins and impositions on you
as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.
Please don’t put us through trials,
but deliver us from everything bad.
Because you are the one in charge,
and you have all the power,
and the glory too is all yours —
forever — which is just the way we want it!

1. Jesus expects it.

Matthew 6:16-17
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face."

Mark 9:14-29
23 “Everything is possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”

2. Jesus models it.

Fasting uncovers in secret what will come out in stress.

Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

John 4:32-35 - (Woman at the well)

Jeremiah 15:16
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.

3. Jesus rewards it.

Matthew 6:17-18
But 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; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

We do not know for sure what the reward is, but we know that the reward is given. But God does something to us when we fast.

1. It reorients our (as Dallas Willard calls it) want-ers. It reorients what we really
desire. It resets our soul.

2. We are telling our bodies no, and our soul this is what we ought to long for.

3. The Lord will reward the difficult, the training and the faith.

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