Fasting: Day 10,11,&12
CHECK IN ( write in your journal):
In New York Citian: Yo you good?
Memorizing verses at an old age is a bit hard. You got this! Which verses have made an impact on you so far?
What are your observations on how God is moving in you and around you while you fast?
How are you reacting to making more room for God’s presence?
OUR GOAL FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS
Learning the physical needs you have when you fast: schedule, meals, hydration, places of meditation, journal, pen, hand cramps when you write alot etc…
Learning how to equip ourselves with the word again. Read your memory verses throughout the day.
Practice and Reflection: Obeying and Praying
Operating in God’s will, submitting to his shepherding.
Meditating on God as my Father.
My Secret Life (Solitude)
The Secret Life
READ Matthew 6:1–18
The life of faithful Christians is meant to overflow into their friends, their neighbors, and their church. The Bible is adamant that believers make every effort not to disregard the importance of fellowship with other saints. We are called to strengthen one another, bear each other’s burdens, and pray for one another. Singing praises and songs together is a natural rhythm of practicing our faith. Sitting side by side while hearing and studying the Word of God is paramount. Community is critical for a Christian. A Christian who resists community is like a lamb sitting alone in the wilderness surrounded by wolves.
However, Jesus gives us another field of our spiritual life that often goes unspoken and unrecognized. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us to pray, fast, and give in secret. Oftentimes, traditional religion puts us into performative paces and protocols. People who grow up religious are often heavily influenced by their parents and by culture. Much of their religious expression becomes forced, cold, and distant. In other words, the worship of their God is not the true motive for their expression—pleasing other people is.
When Jesus commands His people to wash their faces while fasting, give without showing off, and pray in the privacy of their rooms, He is pointing out a pain point. People have engaged in these religious expressions of faith for all the wrong reasons. Praying, fasting, and giving are not performances meant to satisfy personal vanity. They are responses to a loving God who desires a real, public-and-private relationship with you. By establishing the principle of the secret place, Jesus reveals God’s desire for intimacy with the creation He loves.
Why Fast and Pray in Secret?
In Jesus’s day, people were fasting for all the wrong reasons. They fasted to appear self-righteous and religious. Jesus wanted fasting to be a vulnerable time for His children to learn the tension between their fleshly desires and godly desires. It was never meant to publicly signal virtue or show off.
At the end of the day, fasting is messy because we are messy. Fasting is vulnerable. It puts our sins and shortcomings right on the table. The beauty is that God wants to meet us in these times of weakness to strengthen and help us. In your secret place, you reveal who you really are—and that is what God wants to see. He is not afraid of it.
Prayer can be public and corporate, but it is also private and intimate. Jesus illustrates that a prayer warrior must go into their room and shut the door. Perhaps the Lord said this because true prayer is marked by deep vulnerability, intimacy, and connection. Just like in the Psalms, every wave of human experience is brought before God through prayer. In prayer, Christians can cry, groan, confess, repent, and pour out their hearts in one breath.
The secret place removes the unnecessary pressures that push us to perform and instead leads us into true worship. True worship happens when you understand who God really is and who you really are. Worship is recognizing that my sin runs deep and feels permanent, yet I have a God who can wash it white as snow (not three-day-old NYC snow, you know what I mean). It is knowing that I am limited in strength and understanding, yet God knows and sees all. It is trusting that God is in control even when multiple areas of my life feel out of control. Prayer and fasting are worship. The secret life leads us into an unadulterated, uncensored, and unpolluted encounter with the one true God.
Why Give in Secret?
The human heart is prone to pride and haughtiness. It seeks its own glory and forgets that everything comes from the Lord. Giving publicly can be detrimental to the believer’s heart because it can create traps of pride and corruption.
The Lord instituted giving back to the temple through tithes and offerings in the Old Testament as a way to train people to trust God. God is not poor, and He was not fundraising for a new garage door in heaven.
Giving is a form of accountability that tests whether people’s hearts remain focused on God while they are being blessed.
When we give back to the Lord, we exercise confidence in Him. God wants us to lean on Him rather than on material blessings. A generous hand reflects a heart that is generously attached to God.
Solitude in the Secret Place
Jesus spent much of His ministry with people. He walked with people, ate with people, cried with people, preached to people, rebuked people, and performed signs and wonders for people. However, the Bible is also very clear that Jesus spent significant time in solitude. The Gospels tell us that Jesus often went to the mountainside alone to spend hours in prayer. What can we learn from His time in solitude?
During these moments, Jesus rested. He was fully God and fully man, meaning He needed time for His body to recover. As Christians, we are called to rest—but to rest in Jesus’s presence. The news is depressing and anxiety-inducing. Every day it seems like the world is on fire. The truth is that we are not called to be spectators—we are called to be firefighters.
Firefighters train and exercise to strengthen their bodies. They wear heavy protective gear and carry tools such as extinguishers, axes, and flashlights. They are prepared.
Solitude is preparation for a world that can burn you. Preparation looks like rest. Rest includes sleep, prayer, and meditation on God’s Word. Our church should pray like monks without isolating like them. We are called to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Do not forget your equipment. Do not forget to rest and recover in solitude.
Accountability in Solitude
A great Baptist preacher once said, “The antidote for loneliness is solitude, for in solitude we learn that we were never alone in the first place.”
Jesus was not alone when He entered solitude. He was in perfect fellowship with the Trinity. When you enter solitude, you are also entering fellowship with the Trinity. You are not alone.
EMMANUEL = GOD WITH US
Solitude trains our hearts and minds to practice the presence of God when everything else is absent. In solitude, we cut off distractions and worldly noise. It is in the quiet and stillness that we make room for the Holy Spirit to influence our hearts and minds. It is in solitude that we devour the Word of God and deeply reflect as the Spirit works within us.
Solitude also trains our hearts to act righteously when no one is watching. By training our faith to become more aware of God’s presence in solitude, we also become more aware of sin committed in secret. If we truly believed God was with us at all times, would we not fight our sin alongside the Holy Spirit rather than acting as if He were not there?
Secret places can only be filled with two things: shame or the Spirit. One produces fruit and freedom; the other gives birth to death and destruction.
Reflection Questions (Journal)
What is deep in your heart that you need to pray about? Pause right now. Stop playing. Just pray.
In what ways has God lavished you with His love and blessings? How does this reflect His heart?
How have your generosity, offerings, and tithes reflected your heart?
What do you do in secret?
Helpful Guidelines for Solitude
God, remind me of Your love, mercy, and power.
God, remind me of my purpose and calling. Return me to the mission.
God, expose my sin and lead me in the everlasting way.
God, influence my marriage and relationships. Return me to the mission.
God, give me wisdom and equip me for the mission.
