Surrender Day 10 True Joy: Digging Deeper
February 3, 2023
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Matthew 6:16-24
The Original Intent
1) How does the Father reward those who fast in secret? (verse 18)
In Matthew 6:17-18, Jesus gave these instructions about fasting, “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” When Christians fast, they demonstrate to God how much they love him and how they want to draw closer to Him.
As Andrew Murray explains, “Fasting helps express, deepens, confirms the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.” Jesus instructed His disciples to fast in secret so they would not gain recognition from others for being pious. Instead, God would reward them.
Scripture tells us that fasting is the humbling of the soul (Psalm 35:13), and God promises to reward this humility. Hebrews 11:6 tells us God rewards those who seek Him. Sometimes when we seek God through fasting, God rewards us with what we are practically seeking through prayer. He did this with Anna, who prayed and fasted for the Messiah to come and was blessed to see Him before she died. (Luke 2:36-38) But, as David Mathis points out, “He rewards it not just with what we’re asking for with our fast, but ultimately with who He is as our desire, enjoyment, and satisfaction.”
When we fast, God rewards us with more of Him and with a greater understanding of how He satisfies our deepest hunger and thirst. (John 6:35) What we give up for God in secret He rewards in greater intimacy with Him. Taking less for ourselves brings us more of God. (John 3:30)
The Everyday Application
1) How does the Father reward those who fast in secret? (verse 18)
When election-day rolls around in the United States, you know it’s coming—the obligatory posting of “I Voted” stickers on social media. That tiny adhesive flag becomes a status symbol for a few days every year. While it encourages the privilege of voting, which is admirable, it also demonstrates that you are one of the “good guys” as a responsible, upstanding citizen who exercised your right to vote. Even children at the polls with their parents snag a sticker so they, too, can be cool, though everyone knows they didn’t actually vote.
There was certainly no “I Fasted” sticker back in Bible times, but Jesus did warn against showing off that you had been fasting in Matthew 6:17-18, when He admonished His followers to fast in secret and expect to be rewarded by God. Fasting focuses believers on what God has for us and what He longs to do in us. This is one way He rewards our fasting; He uses our time of devotion to Him to pour Himself into us.
Susan Gregory writes, “I knew what it was like to be so hungry for more of God that the only way to be fed was to fast.” God uses our offering of fasting to capture our attention so we can focus on His plans and purposes and carry them out in our lives. David H. Roper asserts, “God always rewards hidden spirituality. He hears every private prayer; He recognizes every secret gift; He notes and richly rewards each unseen act of devotion. You will be strengthened, and the Lord will make you all that He wants you to be.”
Fasting in secret, with God as our only witness, feeds us in a way no food ever could.
The Original Intent
2) Why does the heart disclose our treasure? (verse 21)
In Matthew 6:20-21, Jesus urged His disciples, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He was teaching them that what was valuable were the eternal, spiritual things that could not be damaged or lost. He wanted them to cherish the things of God above the things of the world. (Colossians 3:2)
One way we lay up treasures in Heaven is by giving God the treasures we have on earth. John Piper suggests that “laying up treasures in heaven is giving money away for Christ’s sake rather than accumulating it.” When we care for the poor and needy (Matthew 19:21), the widow and the orphan (James 1:27), and worship God with extravagant giving (Matthew 26:6-13), we show that our hearts are set on heavenly things.
Albert Barnes explains that “To have treasure in heaven is to possess evidence that its purity and joys will be ours. It is to be heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 1:4)” When we care more about money and what it can bring us than we care about God’s kingdom, we risk heartache and pain as we elevate these idols above the Lord in our heart. (1 Timothy 6:10) When we concentrate our time, money and attention on God, then our heart will rejoice in the things of God. (Psalm 16:11)
The Everyday Application
2) Why does the heart disclose our treasure? (verse 21)
One look at credit card statements from our time as DINKS (Double Income No Kids) shows you where our priorities lay at that time: dining out, weekends away, antique store shopping and furniture purchases indicate we were busy building a relationship and a home. After we had 2 kids and I became a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom), the credit card statements told a different story: diapers, braces, and sports team fees indicated we were focused on the care and raising of children. We spent our time and money on the things that mattered most to us.
Jesus taught that if you look at where your treasures lie, that is where your heart lies also. (Matthew 6:21) It is okay to spend your money on earthly treasures like antiques and vacations, but it is not okay to make them your heart’s treasure. Can you live without them? How much would it hurt your heart if you couldn’t have those things anymore?
Our hearts should treasure heavenly things, that which impacts the Kingdom of God, the most. Charles Ellicott asserts, “Men may try to persuade themselves that they will have a treasure on earth and a treasure in heaven also, but in the long-run, one or the other will assert its claim to be the treasure, and will claim the no longer divided allegiance of the heart.”
While it is okay to earn money and spend money, Jesus taught us not to value money, or anything, over heavenly things. (Matthew 6:33) Ruth Chou Simons writes, “if your treasure is Christ/You have all you need/Through the One who did all that was necessary/For you to be pleasing/To the only One that matters.” We don’t need to set our hearts on storing up earthly treasures because everything we need we have in Christ.
The Original Intent
3) How can the “light within you” be darkness? (verse 23)
In Matthew 6:23, Jesus stated, “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!” Adam Clarke writes that “An evil eye was a phrase in use, among the ancient Jews, to denote an envious, covetous man or disposition; a man who . . . loved his own money and would do nothing in the way of charity for God’s sake.”
Jesus wanted His followers to know that anyone who let love of money or greed affect their view of the world would have a dark outlook. If your eye is bad, that means your outlook and your perspective are clouded and you cannot see clearly. (Ephesians 4:18) The light of God’s Word is not illuminating your mind, and you are living in darkness. (Psalm 119:105)
David Guzik explains, “Jesus tells us that either our eye is directed at heavenly things (and therefore full of light) or it is directed at earthly things (and therefore full of darkness) […] our attitude towards material treasure will either bring great light or great darkness to our lives.” When we love money and earthly things more than God, we will live in a deep darkness that affects everything we do. We can ask God to help us see things from His perspective (2 Corinthians 5:16) so we will focus on heavenly things and have God’s light shining within us. (Matthew 5:14-16)
The Everyday Application
3) How can the “light within you” be darkness? (verse 23)
One of my favorite Christmas tales is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. After encountering the gruff, angry old miser, Ebeneezer Scrooge, at the beginning of the story, it is gripping to travel back in time to witness him as a caring young man with hope for the future and love in his life. The juxtaposition of the bitter old man next to his younger, happier self, remembering the way his heart used to feel, is sorrowful. After seeing how greed and avarice dampened the light in his life, it makes his eventual transformation into a generous, compassionate man all the more powerful.
Scrooge is an example of Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6:23, “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!” The love of money that Scrooge succumbed to sunk him into deep darkness, but be warned that any sin we put ahead of God eventually results in this same spiraling, stealthy darkness meant to steal, kill, and destroy our lives. (Romans 1:21, John 10:10) Evie Polsley writes, “God had so much He wanted to show me in His Word, but I had closed my eyes to it because it wasn’t enough for me. It wasn’t what I wanted to see. I had created my own darkness, my own blindness, because I wanted to be in control.”
There are times we find ourselves choosing things that lead us into darkness, even on an everyday basis. (John 3:19) This is when we turn to Jesus, the light of the world (John 8:12), to help us throw off darkness and walk in His light (Romans 13:12-14).
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