I historically and even potentially now have been horrible at fasting. I would make it at a maximum 24 hours and buckle, saying to myself "Jesus is graceful" and then grabbing the nearest food item and stuffing it in my mouth to satisfy the weakness of my human body. Not exactly what I call the picture of relying upon God and His strength.
But today is a new day! In an effort to finally be successful in a fast I have asked a couple friends to ask me about it and keep me accountable. In addition to this I decided to start my fast with a trip to Isaiah 58. A chapter titled in my Bible as "True and False Fasting." I have read it before and figured it would be the perfect way to start my day and my fast. God did business on my previous perception of the proper way to fast through this chapter. I wonder why I have failed to grasp the ideas I grasped today in previous readings.
My previous perception of fasting revolved around me being in constant prayer about what I wanted God to do and how I wanted Him to answer me. This could not be farther from the truth according to 58. God turns it up by saying true fasting revolves around your service and caring for the poor and homeless. Centers around you looking first to the interests of others. "THEN you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'" It is by placing your focus on others that what you desire and are fasting about will be answered by God! This idea should permeate throughout the rest of our lives as well, but especially when we are fasting. We have all heard the last shall be first. This applies to all life. I need to change the way in which I think and operate. I need to truly believe that working to serve others constantly is ACTUALLY in my best interests. Trust God for what He says He is going to do.
How do I this? How do these ideas and truths get changed into action and a new heart?
I currently know it can NOT come from a misplaced sense of self righteousness. (Gal 6:2-5) The strength can not come from me. The glamor of inviting a homeless person into your house, feeding them, and having them sleep on your bed fades rather quickly. The praise of man can not satisfy the discomfort it will cause you.
All I have after little thought, this is all coming from my morning T in the Dub, is prayer and just doing it, just buying a homeless guy lunch, just inviting him into your house and trusting God to provide the strength to endure. I guess it all comes down to taking a leap of faith, but I am just a man and my perspective is small and I make mistakes so take everything I say with a grain of salt and examine it up against the Word.
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