Day 11: The Fast God Has Chosen

When you’re fasting, do you want your fast to be pleasing and acceptable to God, so that you get all the breakthrough you desire–and so that you can reap the highest amount of benefit from your sacrifice of fasting? If so, it’s important a specific condition that God requires of us when fasting–something that many people don’t know about.

This little-known condition for acceptable fasting is found in Isaiah 58.

In Isaiah 58, God is rebuking the Israelites for seeking Him with their words, and sometimes even with their contrite hearts–but not adding specific actions to those words or attitudes. Yes, they prayed–and sometimes even said they repented for their sins. But, their prayers didn’t extend to sacrificial action on behalf of others.

And God said in Isaiah 58 that the following things are absolutely essential if we want Him to accept our fast:

• Setting people free from sin, discouragement, and other oppressive burdens;
• Liberating oppressed people;
• Breaking every yoke of bondage;
• Sharing your bread with the hungry;
• Showing hospitality to the poor and giving them lodging;
• Clothing the naked; and
• Caring for your family.

Isaiah 58:6-9 says this:

And although this passage doesn’t include the sum total of all of God’s instructions about fasting, this passage does merit attention because we don’t hear it preached much.

We usually hear that fasting should be sacrificial, and it should. We also hear that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer as well, when are fasting; the fast by itself, if you don’t add prayer to it, is only dieting.

However, God expects the sacrifice of fasting to be rather more three-dimensional. He actually expects us to take the time to not only sacrifice something we would normally do for ourselves (like a solid meal or desserts or bread or whatever), but also push ourselves to do something for others at a level also exceeding what is, to us, normal.

This is why, again, He expects us to:

• Set people free from sin, discouragement, and other oppressive burdens;
• Liberate oppressed people;
• Break every yoke of bondage;
• Share your bread with the hungry;
• Show hospitality to the poor and give them lodging;
• Clothe the naked; and
• Care for your family.

Yes, God expects us to make an extra effort to care for the poor when we fast.

It’s not enough to just skip food, or some type of food. But we are also supposed to extend the same spiritual and physical care that we want for ourselves to others. During our fast, we are to become agents of freedom, healing, and restoration–spiritually, physically, and economically–to others.

And God takes this very seriously.

Beloved, fasting with a real desire for God is absolutely necessary.

But, according to the Word of God, it’s not enough. We also have to extend ourselves to the poor when we fast, and He says “Is this not the fast that I have chosen?”

So fasting and praying is multi-dimensional. It requires us to not only get alone with God in the secret place and sit with Him at the table of our own offering to His name, but also GO OUT of our secret place and find others to bless in His name as well.

I have noticed that, in this community, God always sends extra opportunities to care for the poor when we fast and pray.

And I have seen the same thing when I’m fasting by myself. He wants us and expects us to make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate. He expects us to minister to them out of our own sustenance. And He says that, without those things, our fasting and prayers are not acceptable to Him …

… but that, when we DO stretch ourselves out to do those things, THAT is when our light comes forth speedily, healing comes forth, and breakthrough happens.

Read our key Scripture one more time:

But it doesn’t stop there. Read the part about your reward again, and also read the subsequent verses that elaborate on your reward:

“Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and 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 extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In” (Isaiah 58:8-12 NKJV).

These huge rewards happen when you step out during your fast to care for the poor.

And THIS is the fast that God has chosen.

Friend, are you expending yourself today, not only to pray, but also to free the oppressed and care for the poor?

If not, why not start now? Go ahead and witness to others about how they can be freed, healed, and whole from whatever binds them. Find some hungry people and feed them. Ask God to send you to people who have been oppressed and abused, and to use you to heal them and set them free.

Give clothes, housing, and food to people who need those things. You don’t have to do it all by yourself; even participating in a group project with a group of like-minded believers counts. (For example, when we in this community all work together on a missions project.)

But beloved, this is the fast that God has chosen.

And without it, pray as you might, your fast is not yet pleasing and acceptable to God. So, don’t wait! Step out today on the Word of God. Even if you have to sacrifice in order to care for the poor, go ahead and do it anyway.

You can and should believe God to pay you back, according to Proverbs:

“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” (Proverbs 19:17 NKJV).

But you still have to be the one to step out and honor Jesus by making the first move, according to Luke 6:38:

“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38 NKJV).

But God loves the poor, and He wants us to expend ourselves to set them free, showing the same heart toward others that He has.

This is the fast that God has chosen, and He will always reward you for doing what it takes to make your fast pleasing and acceptable in His sight.

What can you do today to care for the poor? Stop and pray about it, and then take action without missing another minute!