The Fast That God Chooses

THE FAST THAT GOD CHOOSES

Is this not the fast that I choose? Isaiah 58:6

Fasting is a strange thing. It is a lost discipline in a gluttonous age of self-consump-tion. But according to God, it is a mark of true religion. Of course, it must be the right kind of fasting––the kind God chooses. Isaiah 58:1-14 sets forth in clear, even confrontational, language what kind of fasting God likes. It involves two things.

First, it is a fast that benefits the poor and starves the flesh from the consumption of goods and services (Isaiah 58:1-12). To be deeply religious while we ignore issues of justice, mercy and benevolence is offensive to our God. The Church that can live comfortably in the American brand of capitalism, where the gap between rich and poor is ever widening, where the working class and middle class bear increasing tax burdens but see less and less relief, where common folks can’t afford health care or health insurance, where Social Security and retirement funds are consumed by overpaid, dishonest financial executives and squandered by government raids on public savings, is not the religion with which God is comfortable. Somewhere along the line, the Christian must ask, “How much is enough, and how can I help to change the system and provide for the poor?” Sound radical? It is. Sound un-American? It once was not.

Second, this fast God chooses is a fast from busyness and recreation through the observance of the Sabbath Day (Sunday; Isaiah 58:13-14). Life is made up of two precious but limited commodities—money and time, and the latter may well be most in short supply. To rob God of His day of worship and your soul of its day of rest is as sinful as to rob the poor of their daily bread. Isaiah 58:13-14 calls us to do three things with every Sunday we have in the brevity of our lives:

• To honor the day as sacred and set it aside for the corporate and public worship of God
• To delight in the Lord’s Day and see it as a happy blessing, not a burdensome duty
• To refrain from our work and from worldly recreations that pull our souls back into the world and away from the Kingdom of God

I must be frank: I am deeply troubled by the way the majority of our PCA Churches no longer have Sunday evening worship services, and all the ministers who declare Chapter 21 of The Westminster Confession of Faith (“Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath”) as an exception in their views. Whatever happened to fasting from sports, restaurants, shopping malls and yard work on the Lord’s Day?

Perhaps the consumption of time, which ravages our souls, is rooted in the same sin that causes us to consume goods and services to everyone’s detriment. Could it be greed? The coveting of more things (even the poor man’s things) and more time (even God’s one day a week) is the double-root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Think about it.

I believe that Isaiah is unpacking what James summarizes as “pure and undefiled religion:”

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and

widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)

When we give to the poor, spend less and tithe more, save rather than consume and fast from feeding the greedy soul with more stuff, we are able to “visit (care for) widows and orphans (the poor) in their affliction.” And when we take a genuine day off, attend worship at church morning and evening, and fast from feeding the busy soul with more activities, we are able to “keep oneself unstained by the world.”

God promises us wonderful things if we fast from consumption: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And He promises us greater things still if we fast from busyness and rest in Him: “I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father” (Isaiah 58:14). And the implications are wonderful. Giving and Sabbath keeping restore the foundations of a good and noble society. That is God’s promise.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in. (Isaiah 58:12)

PRAYING FOR THE PCA

AC: Pray that the Lord will guard his servants against mistakes in handling the large volume of paperwork necessary to facilitate the Assembly and the other business meetings taking place during the week. Pray also that the technology and equipment used to enhance the flow of business will serve us well!

CTS: Pray for Jimmy Agan, Covenant Seminary’s dean of faculty, as he continues to facilitate deep and rich relationships among the members of the faculty. Pray that each professor will serve the seminary community and the broader church with a humble heart, a spirit of grace and an infectious love for Jesus Christ.

MTW: Pray for MTW’s short-term teams, that their work will be fruitful, and that many short-term workers will respond to the call to long-term missions.

RUM: Please pray for the Interns who are returning to serve for another year on the campus as RUF staff. Pray that they will have a heart for serving others and that they will seek the Lord’s direction as they attend training during the coming months. Please pray for these young men and women, that Jesus and his work will sustain them as they pour themselves out for the sake of the Kingdom.

RBI: RBI employees talk with many PCA pastors and staff who are struggling personally with family and church problems. Pray for the staff to have opportunities to advise and assist.