January 4, 2008, Who, me, FAST?

Who, me, FAST?

Did I hear that right Lord? You want me to....."fast"? You know I've tried it before, never seem to get through it, You know, my flesh is weak. Did I say food? Not that kind of fast? What kind of fast?

(Now stay with me, it's not what you think)
With the New Year, once again we are inundated with ads for loosing weight. Don't you just get sick of it?! But try this on for size (hee hee). There is another kind of fast that doesn't required food deprivation. Joy, joy, joy....

Oh but wait, it requires something of us also. It's called serving others.

Isn't it like my Lord to always turn His heart to the oppressed, protecting them constantly. Getting in the faces of legalists that can neither hear or care to hear His voice.
This time the fast is serving others. He calls it "repairer of the breach or broken wall", depending on your version.
He calls us to serve the unlovely, the unwanted, the needy; to feed the hungry, provide shelter to the "poor wanderer", clothe the naked. The legalists couldn't hear it, but He said it.
Want you health to break forth? He says this is how to do it.

He says "Is not this the kind of fasting that I have chosen, to loose the chains of injustice"

"Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear"
How's that for fasting? No deprivation, just serving others. The same results.

"Now you can have your cake and eat it too", or the 16th century version, "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" John Heywood

New Year's resolution - attached to yesterday's heart call. "immediately they left their nets and followed Him".

Need healing in your body, need prayer answered, serve someone whom His heart loves.
That is the person next to you, wherever you go.
Isaiah 58