Isaiah 58 – True Fasting
The bible says… Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. (1)
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. (4)
The Fast that the Lord has chosen loosens the chains of injustice. Sets the oppressed free. It is to share your food with the hungry, and provide shelter to the poor. The Lord tells us to clothe the naked.
THEN your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am”. (8)
IF you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, THEN your light will rise in the darkness.(10)
Once again, the Lord tells me… Kelly, you have no idea what I am asking of you or what it will cost you. But you asked me to show it to you, “Here I am”. Will you spend yourself on behalf of my people? The poor, the wandering, the hungry, the naked?
Fasting is more than skipping a meal and setting aside time spend in prayer with God. It is about breaking our attachment to things of this world. It is while you still want a thing that you can’t get your mind off it. When you rise above it, He may give it back to you, but then you are out of it’s grip. (Reese Howell’s Intercessor)
Just 5 minutes after writing this, God gave me the chance to realize it in my own life. I went to breakfast to find out, there was only bread. After a months of rice and beans three times a day in Costa Rica, eggs for breakfast were such a blessing here in Peru. I quickly realized that we had become accustomed to eggs in the morning again, thus I was no longer appreciative of them, but rather expectant and entitled!
So now the Lord has presented me with an interesting, and convicting, inquiry. What has a hold on me? What am I still not willing to fully surrender to the Lord? What do I, falsely, claim to have a right to?
One of the biggest challenges of the World Race for me has been the food. Lots of fried foods, white rice and potatoes. As many of you know I have spent many years studying and teaching about health and nutrition.
I am attached to my good health. I, the self-nature in me, believe that I deserve to be healthy. Hmmm, IF the Lord were to call me to illness, would I surrender my body? Do I have a right to health?
The Lord promises to provide what we need. But my version of what I need seems to be drastically different from God’s. I am not sure the Lord agrees that I need fruits and veges and protein.. and wheat grass and spirulina and almond butter. He said he will provide for our needs greater than the lilies of the field. I don’t recall him ever saying we will always be full, never be hungry.
I am still in this inquiry here. But I wonder. What lesson is the Lord teaching me here on the World Race. Perhaps it is compassion and mercy for a small part of the way that the people we are here to serve live. Perhaps it is stripping me of all that I hold dear, all that I try to control on my own, all that is preventing me from depending on the Lord. If I truly trust in the Lord, and that He will provide for my every need. Then am I willing to believe that the food we are provided with here is the will of God? Am I willing to believe that just as God multiplies food for those children in Costa Rica that he can use white rice and potatoes to nourish my body? Am I willing to surrender my body, my health, to place it in the hands of my heavenly father? Am I willing to surrender it all to wherever and whatever my Heavenly Father calls me too? Am I willing?
To be continued…
Part Two – Am I willing to spend myself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed?
ARE YOU WILLING??? We are still raising support to purchase bibles for the people of Peru. Just $5 dollars buys a family a bible. Please click here to make a donation to give a bible to a family in the mountains of Peru
and type “Kelly Ramsey – Peru Bibles” in the “Person or Team” space. Your
donation is so appreciated. We have already given out the first round
of bibles, and people are so thankful. Many new Christians here have
never owned their own bible!
