“A Fast Acceptable To The LORD!”

“A Fast Acceptable To The LORD!”(Is.58:1-9a).
“God, where are you?” is a question we have heard and read so much concerning gruesome killings amidst kidnappings for ransom in the restive regions of Cameroon.
Do the churches – both licensed and unlicensed – feel embarrassed by God’s silence? Does God really care? Or, as Philip Yancey captioned his book, “Where is God when it hurts?”
These kinds of questions were asked by the Israelites. Soon after the fall of Jerusalem, the people increased the number of days for fasting. Fasting is “a time of self-denial, self-humbling and repentance for sin.” Despite the increased period of fasting, they wondered why God did not see their fast and why he did not notice that they had humbled themselves.
The lesson we can learn from their experience for our time is that God does not respond to those who, while fasting, do as they please. They exploit their workers, and they end up their fasting with quarrelling, striking each other with wicked fists.
The LORD says fasting is not just a man humbling himself or bowing one’s head like a reed and lying in sackcloth and ashes. Such is not the fast that is acceptable to the LORD.
Dear country people, do we want our lights to break forth like a dawn, and for our healing to quickly appear? Do we want our righteousness to go before us and the glory of the LORD to be our rearguard?
Do we really want the LORD to answer us when we call and come to our rescue when we cry for help?
Then let us do this: Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter. When you see a naked person, cloth him and do not turn away from your own flesh and blood.
If we observe this fast, then when we ask, “God, where are you?” He will answer, “Here am I!”
Prayer: Holy Spirit, prompt us daily to observe the fast that is acceptable to the LORD. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.