What Kind of Fasting Have You Been Doing Lately?

Most of us Christians here in America don't mind making sacrifices for a short period of time if it will accomplish something worthwhile. Many of us would even be willing to pray and fast for a while if we thought it would accomplish something important. Some of us would even be willing to pray and fast on a weekly basis if we really thought it would do something amazing. But if I told you there is a kind of fast that relieves suffering?

The prophet Isaiah tells us of such a fast:

[Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
[Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isaiah 58:6-7

Do you see what God is telling us here? We may seek God daily, we may delight to know His ways, we may do righteously, we may cling to the Word of God, we may ask God to show us what is right, and we may take great delight in approaching God to worship Him, . . . BUT . . .

Is our focus on achieving our own well-being, plans, ambitions, dreams, etc., or is it to minister to others? Jesus said several times that those of us that find our life will lose it, and that those of us that lose our lives for his sake shall find it (Mattthew 10:39). We will lose the things in life that are important in our great struggle to find and obtain them if our focus is on ourselves.

The prophet Isaiah goes on to say that if we minister to others,

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rearward.
Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I [am]. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
And [if] thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noonday:
And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:8-11

The Hebrew words for fast come from the concept of restraining or shutting our mouths. Maybe God would get a lot more glory, and His people would get a lot more blessing if we talked less, and focused more on ministering to the hurting.

God give us the grace to live for His glory,
Pastor B.