Repentance and Fasting Go Together

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. [Matthew 6.9-13]

Oh, the day is simply no long enough to discuss all that is here for us!

However, there is a point I wish to discuss here today that is a fresh revelation for me. It has to do with Jesus' 'after-instruction-discussion' of the Model Prayer.

Here is the first thing Jesus discussed in explanation of one portion of the Model Prayer:

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. [Matthew 6.14-15]

Jesus elaborated on verse 12 in the Model Prayer: "...and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us." In other words, Jesus further explained verse 12 with verses 14-15.

Then, we clearly see Jesus further explaining verse 11 in verses 19-34 (quite a bit of verbiage was actually invested in this explanation).

However, I want to point something out that all too easily overlooked I believe. It seems Jesus is giving further explanation of the Model Prayer in reverse order. He highlighted that our forgiveness is contingent upon our forgiving - He pointed out that our forgiveness is not even address-able until we have forgiven.

So, once He has addressed the forgiveness thing, we usually look a little further up to see that Jesus went on to further explain "Give us today the food we need..." the preceding topic (verse 11 and our daily bread), in verses 19-34.

But what I wish to point out is that there is a discussion about fasting before Jesus mentioned our daily needs. Why is that? How does it relate to the 'reverse order' mentioned above?

Here is how it relates (as I see it). Jesus addressed our "giving" forgiveness (as we have forgiven those who sin against us) in verses 14-15. But in keeping with the reverse order working up, He spent some time elaborating on receiving forgiveness (forgive us our sins) with His mention of fasting! And, that is quite consistent with the rest of the Bible because when people repented, it was typically with fasting! 

To be clear, repentance and fasting go together!

Why we have excluded fasting from repentance probably has a lot to do with the fact that we have excluded repentance! So, to make fasting still relevant, we have made it about getting something we want instead of something we want to get rid of (sin)! God help us! 

Father, help us to get it right about repentance and fasting!