Isaiah 58

Today was hard, physically. I'm finally at a point where my stomach isn't complaining and my head doesn't hurt. It's difficult not to think about food or about how my body feels, but I'm doing my best to turn my thoughts to better things and spend my time in prayer.
Pastor Chris talked about some verses from Isaiah chapter 58 last Sunday, but he mentioned that the entire chapter centers on fasting. I decided that today I would meditate on the chapter as a whole and think about what fasting means and what the true purpose of this spiritual discipline is.

The chapter begins with God telling Isaiah to inform His people that although they thought they were righteous, they were still living in sin. He said that if they wondered why their fasting and humility went unrecognized, they should look at the way they used their days of fasting. Instead of focusing on God's thoughts and on communion with him, they went about their business as usual, pursued their own pleasure, oppressed their workers, argued and got into fistfights. God told them that kind of "fasting" was not going to make their voices heard to Him.
Is it enough to act humble, to bow down, and to wear sackcloth and ashes before the Lord? God says that He chooses a fast that is about freedom and ACTION.
Fasting is about actively breaking bondage. It's about sharing your bread with the hungry. It's about bringing the homeless poor into your house, clothing the naked, and satisfying the desires of the afflicted. It's about seeing and meeting needs.
So why fast? God commands us to do those good things ALL the time. But fasting can help in several ways - first of all, I think it can help us take our attention off of our own needs long enough to notice the needs of others. Second of all, I think community fasting can bring together the hearts of God's people to re-focus them on their united goals of caring for those in need. And perhaps most practically, it can free up some of our resources for those who need them more than we do! Jonas and I need to eat to live, but we have much more food than we need. God has blessed us and we don't know what it's like to go hungry out of poverty. So tonight I told him I think we should take the food we're NOT eating this week and bring it to church to be distributed to the Autumn Lakes community. What better way to use our resources than to obey God's picture of a true and valuable time of fasting by sharing our bread with the hungry? This way, the fast becomes not only a period of introspection and communion with God, but also a tool for empowering and encouraging others.
This fall, Jonas and I co-led a young adults' small group, and our object of discussion was God's picture of reward in scripture. I don't believe we ever got to Isaiah chapter 58, but here is a wonderful collection of promises from God - He doesn't only command fasting. He rewards it richly if we do it to His glory! Many of the promises stand out to me - he will make our light shine brightly, give us speedy healing (for ourselves? for others, through us?), our righteousness will go out before us, we will be like an unfailing spring of water, we will raise up the foundations of many generations and be repairers, rebuilders, and restorers...the list goes on and on. God promises to use fasting to empower us to advance His kingdom in the hearts of those around us! So I find myself encouraged by the thought that this fast is not an empty ritual or an act of religious piety. It is more like a collective call to action, and through the sacrifices we are making, we will be better able to change the world.