Friday, 3 March 2017

Isaiah 58:7 “Is not this the fast that I choose… Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him…” Fasting is about repentance. Repentance from sin. Repentance is turning away from sin, leaving sin behind, to live a new way. To fast is to begin a new way of life, to enter and walk a new path. Fasting and prayer and confession of sin are dead if they do not result in life change. The only real repentance is the one that can be seen in the way we live after we repent. The only real repentance is the one that can be seen in how we love people. The only real repentance can be seen in how we love the poor and suffering people. “share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him…” Giving up food for a day or even several days is not a true fast, a fast of repentance, unless it is joined with a lifestyle that turns away from self-indulgence, luxury, greed, and turns toward generosity and service to the needy. Only this kind of fasting, a fasting joined with real repentance, will be blessed by God. God does not hear and bless, if we fast and pray and confess sin without real repentance, without seeking obedience. But if we fast and repent, turn from greed and love the needy. Isaiah says in verse 9 “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’” v 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. True fasting with repentance will result in the light rising up in the total darkness of your life.