I got to write a little devotional over here. Thought I’d share it with you over here as well…
I’m a preacher’s kid, so growing up in the Indian church we had all sorts of rules to follow. On Sunday mornings, we had a whole different set of rules. Some of them included not watching TV or reading the newspaper before church, learning a memory verse, or always wearing our Sunday “best.” One of the biggest rules was that we couldn’t eat on Sunday mornings before church. I knew we were supposed to be “fasting” but I was never really sure why we were fasting. As a kid all I really knew was that I was hungry and wanted to sneak a little snack, even if it was just a piece of bread when nobody was looking. My brothers and I would literally count down the hours, minutes and seconds until church ended and we could have lunch. And of course, Sundays were always the best meals! We always had guests at our house after church so our mom would make all of our favorite Indian dishes.
Somehow, I guess I knew that fasting was important to my parents, therefore it should’ve been important to me. But I didn’t get it. My parents never explained the purpose of fasting to me, perhaps thinking I was too young to understand or care.
But that lack of understanding about fasting followed me for years. As a young adult I still struggled with knowing what to do on Sunday mornings. Was it wrong to eat breakfast? Was it wrong to not fast? Why did not eating breakfast and making a mad rush to the buffet line at lunch make me somehow feel that I was missing the point?
It’s funny that sometimes what we learn as children become the things that we believe should be the way we live the rest of our lives. We sometimes don’t even know why we do certain things, but since it’s familiar, we carry on the pattern. Do we do things simply because our parents told us to do them as kids? Do we know what the scriptural basis is for things we practice, preach and pray?
The topic of fasting left quite an impression on my young mind, so as an adult I’ve looked into it on my own and Isaiah 58 jumps out at me:
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Can you imagine? Our fasting is meant to loosen the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
I never would have known that had I not opened up the scripture and read it for myself. My act of not eating is actually a battle against oppression. It says specifically what happens when I fast…it’s not meant to make me look holy and perfect before God. It’s meant to bring life, hope and relief to those around me. When I am hungry I will see the hunger in the eyes of my brothers and sisters around me. When I am thirsty, my eyes will be open to the thirsty around me who need so desperately to hear about Jesus through my love for them.
Why is that so hard for us as Christians to understand? There are people all around us every day who need a little relief, but sometimes we’re so caught up in self-motivated fasting. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray for good things in our lives, but too often we are fasting and praying for a winning game, a good grade, the perfect spouse, a bigger house, a better job, a better location, better looks. We often compare ourselves to those around us and feel dissatisfied with the blessings we have which lead us on a path to pray for more. This, my friends, is the type of fasting that God despises. The kind of fasting where we are left wondering why God isn’t hearing our prayer, but we forget that in His word, he’s told us in
Isaiah 58:9b-10,
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday”
Its kind of hard to believe isn’t it? That God would be so harsh in addressing us about our role in taking care of the poor? We sometimes doubt that He meant that for us specifically. I mean really…all we need is some direction in life and some answers to prayer. So if that were all we need, why wouldn’t we follow his word? Verses 8 and 9a say:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
I want that! I want that for myself, for my family, for my friends and for you! It’s sometimes a hard concept for us as a new generation of Christians in a multi-cultural world to understand that the mandate still remains for us to reach out to the lost and the hurting…to put someone else’s need above our wants for bigger, better and bolder…to be the answer to the prayer of a child in need or a neighbor in want. The truth of scripture has not changed.
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
It’s interesting to me how God uses the “If…Then” statement to explain His intense meaning. IF you do this, THEN you will see the light. Amazing isn’t it? Our fasting, isn’t meant to make me look good or holy to my parents or my church. It is meant to battle the wickedness and oppression that exists to debilitate and strip my fellow man of their humanity. If I don’t step into the battle, then it becomes my sin that gets in the way of another person’s freedom.
My prayer is that God will allow us to see that we can do something on a daily basis to reach beyond ourselves and to help those in need. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We are called to take a stand. Fasting is powerful and necessary. It’s not just a chance to go hungry, but to do some serious battle for the kingdom.
The question is: Will you step forward and allow Him to use you? Will you fast in a way that pleases the Lord? Will you be the one who is called Repairer of Broken Walls and Restorer of Streets with Dwellings? (Isaiah 58: 12)
