A Lamp to My Feet

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I hope this has been a good week for all of you. Many believers have been taught to fast. Fasting means: Eating sparingly or abstaining from food altogether, either from necessity or desire. Spiritual fasting calls not only for the reducing the intake of food but replacing this with the exercise of prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and concentration on spiritual concerns.

During my daily Bible reading this last week I read the following in Isaiah 58:6-10, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”

If you read the rest of Isaiah 58, you will notice that God is telling his people that he does not accept worship to Him by hypocrites. He admonishes them to practice what they preach. Let each of us strive to be faithful in what we claim to believe.