Father, May I? – Scorched Places – May 5

Father, May I Fast?
May 5, 2021

Scorched Places

Isaiah 58:5b-12, ‘”Do you call THAT fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering and ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help, and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, you lives will begin to glow in the darkness; your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again!”’ (MSG)

There’s a lot of confusion about fasting today. Perhaps there always was. To be truthful, I haven’t really known what fasting entails and what is required of me. I don’t want to be the person that posts pridefully, #Justfamishedoverhere #Starving #21dayfast #StarvingForJesus, while I munch in private on the foods I hid in my closet that I can’t possibly avoid, whether dieting or fasting! My daughter once encouraged me to just give up something that would hinder or annoy me to do without; what would grip my attention so when my attention was being nabbed by this thing, I would instead choose to turn my focus on the Father. I am ashamed to admit I couldn’t think of one thing I was willing to give up even for a brief period of time for Jesus! I pondered all of it, even thought about using it as a New Year’s resolution type thing, #novelidea, and I couldn’t even pull that off. #SelfishWays #heartinthewrongplace #iam#1.

Thank God when I got in my last round of troubled predicaments that Jesus arrested my heart! As I grow in Him, I want to know Him fully, better than I’ve ever known anyone. And I stumbled upon the above verses which have taught me about fasting in a new way. It really is about just giving yourself up to being Jesus in other people’s lives, giving up everything to follow Him. But you don’t miss it, your old self, cuz when you fall totally in love with Jesus, you no longer matter; He is all that matters and what He asks of you is an honor to be a part of. He truly gives a full life in the emptiest of places; He satisfies desires in scorched places.

#icandothat #FastYourself #lifeintheFASTlane

I want to know the Father’s opinion about everything!
Won’t you JOURNEY with me this month as we ask our Father, ‘MAY I?’’