“The Fasting & Prayer Conference include

“The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals”.
I will never forget the above notice in a flashy brochure advertising a certain conference. I decided not to attend!

A priest was coming back to his rectory one evening in the dark when he was accosted by a robber who pulled a gun on him and demanded, “Your money or your life!”
As the priest reached his hand into his coat pocket, the robber saw his Roman collar and said: “I see you’re a priest. Never mind, you can go.”
The priest, surprised at this unexpected show of piety, tried to reciprocate by offering the robber a chocolate bar that he remembered was in his pocket.
The robber replied, “No thank you, Father. I don’t eat chocolate during Lent.”

The robber’s double-standards were the heart of the problem in ISAIAH 58.

The Jew knew that the Day of Atonement was a day of afflicting their body (Lev 23). Their rabbis would needlessly add a further list of abstentions to aid this self-denial such as washing, wearing shoes etc. Fasting had become a ritual. This was God’s complaint. He is saying fasting has to be accompanied with an amendment of behaviour towards other people.
Fasting is the afflicting of the body so that you can share in the suffering of God for those who suffer.
Forget about yourself and focus on others through the eyes of a loving God.
The heart of God is focused on those who have been dealt unjustly, those enslaved by man’s burdens, the oppressed, those without food, without homes and without clothes.
1. True Fasting is necessary, v6.
2. True Fasting brings God near, v2.
3. True Fasting leads to answers, v9.
4. True fasting is empowering, v10.
5. True Fasting is revelatory, v11.
6. True Fasting is satisfying, v11.
7. True Fasting is strengthening, v11.
8. True Fasting is refreshing, v11.
9. True Fasting brings restoration, v12
10. True fasting is joy, v14.

Let’s fast!