How to Make a Cuckold out of God by Fasting And when God…

““How to Make a Cuckold out of God by Fasting And when God sees this, he responds. He acts. He rewards. What is the “repayment” or the “reward” that Jesus promises from the Father in these verses? In a perverse way, one might even wonder if the reward God promises is “the praise of men”—as if God said, Since you did not seek it by public fasting but looked to me, I will give you this longed-for wish of human praise. If we hoped for this, our fasting would make a cuckold out of God. This is what James 4:3–4 makes clear. James pictures prayer as a petition to our heavenly husband. Then he ponders the possibility that we would actually ask our husband to pay for our visit to the prostitute. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” The word “adulterous” is the key here. Why are we called “adulterous people” in praying for something to spend on our pleasures? Because God is our husband and the “world” is a prostitute luring us to give affections to her that belong only to God. This is how subtle the sin of worldliness can be. It can emerge not against prayer, but in prayer—and fasting.””

— John Piper