Isaiah 58 speaks volumes!
Through Isaiah God tells His people - Israel, and by extension, us - the kind of life He wants us to live. He rails against false fasting - its inadequacy to reach Him - and defines the following as the kind of fast He wants of us: (Isaiah 58:6-7 ESV)
"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?"
The following verses tell how God will respond when we live in that kind of righteousness. The promises in His response to right living are phenomenal, but conditioned on the ifs. "If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted...."
"And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." And more....
In this chapter God also commands how we should treat the Sabbath. That is an area we have become lax in following. I don't believe it is about the specific day - Saturday or Sunday - but about the way God is honored (or not honored). And - as the beginning of the chapter so pointedly reminds us: it isn't about appearances, but about the condition of the heart. God looks at the heart. Worship is from the heart, not what is visible to others externally. Every day should be an act of pouring ourselves out in worship - in tangible response to His grace, and Isaiah 58 gives me lots to chew on for today....
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