FASTING

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? 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. - Isaiah 58:6,10

Through the prophet Isaiah, God makes an important statement about a spiritual discipline that we practice even today. There are certainly personal benefits to fasting: building intimacy with God, cleansing the body, loosening earthly attachments, etc. But what Isaiah told the nation of Judah was that their fasting (part of their ritual obedience to God) was ultimately hypocritical since the poor and oppressed in their land were going without food.

The question is: are things today all that much different? For the Western Church, do we really sacrifice in order to heed the words of Isaiah? Do I personally commit my life to giving the needy not only a hand out, but a hand up?

So, fasting that moves beyond the self (vertically to God and horizontally to others) is the kind that honors God. If mere personal piety is the only goal, then we are missing an entire facet of the fasting experience that is critical. Our God desires us to be agents of freedom. Only then can His light shine through us.

Possible action steps:

Join LiquidWater on a water fast

Sponsor a Compassion Child

Investigate being part of the Advent Conspiracy this Christmas

Volunteer as part of Habitat for Humanity

For Granger Community Church attendees join us at Second Saturday

ThoughtPrayer: "Lord, shine Your light through us."

ThoughtSong: Leeland "Follow You"