Such was the case this morning, as we continued going through Isaiah in my church. The first 12 verses of chapter 58 was very interesting. Essentially, God tells Isaiah that the people are praying and fasting for the wrong reasons. Essentially in some way of hoping that God will do for them what they want him to do. One of the points that was made is that we often will go through our acts of worship, prayer, ritual, giving, etc. in hopes of a favorable return from God. God is saying this is wrong, and then goes on to outline what it is these people SHOULD be doing. Verses 6-9 in The Message paraphrase reads like this:
"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 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.'
I'm sure I wouldn't be able to convey how this hit me, or how it was even delivered here, but I have to say I as a Christian need to take a hold of this. It is my experience that many Christians, myself included seem to forget about our obligations to the less fortunate, regardless of what their circumstances are. This is what God is calling us to. Not a public display of piety, but a human effort to help those who need help. An unconditional pursuit of expressions of love, charity and the like. It's quite the challenge, and I've got a long way to go. And this post is just me preaching to me and sharing it with whoever is intrigued enough to read it.
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