In light of the Lenten season just before Easter, during which many people choose to fast from many things for many different reasons, I thought it would be appropriate to do a devo on how God wants us to fast, and what our motives should be.
In case you're not familiar with the idea of fasting, it's basically giving something up for a time, for a specific reason. Although the most common fast is from food, you can fast from anything.
- video games
- Coke
- sleep
- etc....
1. Improper Fasting - Isaiah 58:1-5
- "seem" eager for God (appearance but no substance, it's fake)
- "humble" themselves (and yet they boast to God about how humble they are)
- you do as you please
- quarreling, fighting, wickedness
*your prayer, your fast will have no effect
Improper fasting can involve all of the motions and appearance of true fasting, until you look deeper.
2. Proper Fasting - Isaiah 58:6-7
In a nutshell, it involves righteousness (loving God), and justice (loving others).
- loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke
- set the oppressed free and break every yoke
These seem the same until you look closer. Loosening and untying is the first step, and it's an improvement, but it's not the ultimate goal. It takes time and effort before the freeing and breaking takes place. You have to keep at it and see it through to completion.
- share food, shelter, clothing with those in need
- love your family
James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
3. Rewards of Proper Fasting - Isaiah 58:8-14
Read vv.7-9
Caring for Others' Physical Needs
- your light will break forth like the dawn
- your healing will quickly appear
- your righteousness will go before you
- the glory of the Lord will be your rearguard
- you will call, and the Lord will answer
- you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I.
*He answers our cry for help with Himself: He is our help.
Read vv.10-12
Caring for Others' Emotional/Spiritual Needs, etc.
- your light will rise in the darkness
- your night will be like noon
- the Lord will guide you always
- He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame
- you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail
- your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations
- you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets With Dwellings
(imagine school roll call with that for a name... Smith, Repairer..... Dwellings... here!)
Read vv.13-14
Obedience to God
- you will find your joy in the Lord
- God will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to "feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob"
*NOTE* Replace what you're fasting from with seeking after God, doing His will, righteousness and justice, not just other distracting things, otherwise there's no point.
