Fasting to Find Freedom
'This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.'
Isaiah 58:6-9 (MSG)
When we, as a Christian nation, are called to it, then we will be able to see the weight that our sins have put us under. What it appears that God is teaching us here, through His prophet Isaiah, is the importance of fasting. The God kind of fast. The true fast that brings repentance and freedom. To the one that yields to it, there is freedom; freedom from injustice, freedom from exploitation, freedom from debt, freedom from the heavy yoke of sin! This nation needs more freedom from the bondage of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Fasting can reveal where my weak points are and this can lead to a breaking of the yoke that binds me. The point where I am letting sin into my life is the exact place where my problems arise. Fasting can turn on the lights. When I am careful to what I let into my mind by controlling what I see I stay holy. When I watch carefully what I take into my body I stay righteous. When I refuse to yield to the desires of my flesh for more fame and glory I turn from sin.
This is not a call for more government and government utopia. This is a kingdom come call, we are not of this world reminder. I fast for more mental clarity and to tame the flesh. My hunger makes me stronger and makes me desire more of the spiritual food that He provides. Governments do not operate off Holy Spirit direction, but mostly from a false sense of mercy that often leads to bigger governments and their interventions often makes things worse. Making things worse are costly mistakes for those they try to help with their thousands of programs and hundreds of thousands of employees. Help from sins and sorrow can only come from above.
Sin and sorrow brings on pride and disease and weakens even the strongest among us, yet it is the duties that kindness and charity bring that yields strength and refreshes my mind as well as my body. Kingdom come style charity comes in the form of lifting up of the hungry by sharing my food, giving warmth to the homeless by inviting them into my home, clothing those that are cold, being there with kindness for my family members in their time of need. These are the deeds that He is interested in. These are the things that He wants me to do.
Those that live by justice and mercy will find their comfort even in this world. Good works will bring God's blessing when they are done out of love for God and for man and are a result of the overflowing of the Holy Spirit. Freedom comes from God and fasting is one way to find it. Often when I fast and when I call out to God in prayer it is when I hear Him say 'Here I am'!
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.'
Isaiah 58:6-9 (MSG)
When we, as a Christian nation, are called to it, then we will be able to see the weight that our sins have put us under. What it appears that God is teaching us here, through His prophet Isaiah, is the importance of fasting. The God kind of fast. The true fast that brings repentance and freedom. To the one that yields to it, there is freedom; freedom from injustice, freedom from exploitation, freedom from debt, freedom from the heavy yoke of sin! This nation needs more freedom from the bondage of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Fasting can reveal where my weak points are and this can lead to a breaking of the yoke that binds me. The point where I am letting sin into my life is the exact place where my problems arise. Fasting can turn on the lights. When I am careful to what I let into my mind by controlling what I see I stay holy. When I watch carefully what I take into my body I stay righteous. When I refuse to yield to the desires of my flesh for more fame and glory I turn from sin.
This is not a call for more government and government utopia. This is a kingdom come call, we are not of this world reminder. I fast for more mental clarity and to tame the flesh. My hunger makes me stronger and makes me desire more of the spiritual food that He provides. Governments do not operate off Holy Spirit direction, but mostly from a false sense of mercy that often leads to bigger governments and their interventions often makes things worse. Making things worse are costly mistakes for those they try to help with their thousands of programs and hundreds of thousands of employees. Help from sins and sorrow can only come from above.
Sin and sorrow brings on pride and disease and weakens even the strongest among us, yet it is the duties that kindness and charity bring that yields strength and refreshes my mind as well as my body. Kingdom come style charity comes in the form of lifting up of the hungry by sharing my food, giving warmth to the homeless by inviting them into my home, clothing those that are cold, being there with kindness for my family members in their time of need. These are the deeds that He is interested in. These are the things that He wants me to do.
Those that live by justice and mercy will find their comfort even in this world. Good works will bring God's blessing when they are done out of love for God and for man and are a result of the overflowing of the Holy Spirit. Freedom comes from God and fasting is one way to find it. Often when I fast and when I call out to God in prayer it is when I hear Him say 'Here I am'!
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