T H E O P H I L U S

‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “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? 

Isaiah 58:3-7

As we begin the Lent season by observing Ash Wednesday, we come back to an occasion originally celebrated by the early church. It is on this day that one would put a mark of a cross with ashes from the previous Palm Sunday on our foreheads, accompanied by the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. It is a tradition of following the 40 days of fasting in the desert just as Jesus had done.

But why does one Fast? Some of us may have decided to fast something that we feel most attached or distracted by. It could be food, Facebook, or your phone. But why do we do this? is it just to test ourselves or to show to others we are trying to be more righteous?

It is a time to repent, return, and be restored. Where many of us including myself may have been distant from God in many areas of our lives, or have avoided his will – Fasting is a time for us to come back to the Lord and restore the relationship he so desires with us.

We don’t fast for our own personal pleasure or vain goal-making. Fasting is so that we can become humble to ourselves and before God; that we lay all that we possess and love more than God before him and worship him.

Fasting is not only to better oneself, it is to bless others. If our addictions or our strongholds have been a hinderance to others, it is a time for giving them up and taking time to have the Lord repair and restore your relationships. If it is what we consume such as food we are giving up, it is a time we ought to serve others that cannot eat with the money we’ve saved.

I do not challenge you today to Fast, but rather call on you to give the things up to the Lord that you hold more dearly than God. It is a call today to humble ourselves so that He can work in and through our lives.