Bondage Breaking

A fast is a spiritual discipline or exercise that needs to be as much a part of every Christian's walk as reading the word of God and speaking from the heart with God.

Just as regular as our heartbeat and breath, we are to pray without ceasing by carrying on a continual conversation with God throughout the day, sometimes internally, sometimes externally, giving praise, lifting the concerns of others, seeking His direction, expressing gratitude, repeating His promises, all are part of the regular heartbeat of our moment-to-moment walk in Christ.

Just as we eat on a daily basis, whether one meal, three, or more per day, because we need the physical nourishment that food provides us, so our inner life needs spiritual food. Strength comes not only from the milk and bread and meat that we consume, but we are also strengthened by the understanding and wisdom we gain from being in the Word of God and having the Spirit of God reveal to us how it applies to us and how to walk it out.

Just as we must work each day, whether in housekeeping, or in the field, or in the office, or in any of the myriad places God sets us in, for the sake of our physical well-being, as well as our fiscal well-being, even so we must exercise our faith and trust in God's provision and direction as we do the work of the kingdom, as we build and strengthen our relationship with God in the Spirit, as we show the Lord's love and compassion for the weak and helpless, provide aid and comfort for the sick and hungry, care for the widow and orphan, fight for the spiritually defenseless and downtrodden.

Regular rhythms make up the fabric of life, nothing to excess, all things in moderation. We are not just in prayer, though we never stop praying. We are not limited to reading the Word and never doing the Word, though the Word is always in our mouths and our hearts. We are not always working, though as we cease from our own efforts, God is able to do more through us than we can imagine.

Periodically, as the need arises and as God directs, we break our routine. Sometimes it is a burden or sorrow of the heart that calls us to focus on prayer and seeking God to an extant that we have no thought for food. It may be a time of separation unto God, seeking His direction or understanding His will on an issue to the point that the evening entertainment or our regular telephone contacts with friends or online communications are set aside. 

Our bodies will react to the change in routine when food does not arrive in the expected quantity of the preferred type at the accustomed time. But it survives. And it learns submission. We should not be ruled by the responses and demands of our digestive tracts, so we exercise dominion over them. Our stomachs growl, our muscles feel weak, but we press on through, and we learn that there are additional reserves available to our bodies. 

Our minds will react to the idea of missing the nightly news or the next episode of our favorite thriller or comedy or seeing the first-run of a movie. We may believe that if we don't answer the phone or check the email, we may miss something important or someone's need may go unmet. But as we push past the concern and anxiety, or the boredom, we find there are richer, though quieter, thoughts coming from the Spirit of God that lead us into truth and understanding that change our viewpoints and our lives in an eternal way.

Isaiah 58
v.6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
v.7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
v.8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
v.9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Lord God, there is so much You have to teach us. We take it in small steps. You are not in a hurry, Lord, but You do not have time for us to waste. We follow You as You lead us, bit by bit, line by line. We look back and see the growth You have given us, and we press forward into Your Spirit. Thank You, Father, that for everything You have us do for someone else, You find a way to bless and strengthen us as well. We do all to Your glory and Your honor and Your praise, that Your kingdom will increase.

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