The real fast

What does fasting mean to you?

What is the purpose of fasting?

Read the next passage.

Isa 58:1 "Scream loudly, without restraining yourself. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Tell my
people what their rebellion is, Jacob's family* what their sin is.
Isa 58:2 Day by day they come to worship me and pretend that they want to know my will as if
they were a nation that had done the right thing and never left the law of God. They ask me
for fair decisions and they're eager to get close to me.
Isa 58:3 What do we fast for, if you don't see it? Why do we humiliate ourselves, if you don't
notice? You do what you like to do on your fast day. They exploit all their workers.
Isa 58:4 Your fast consists of arguing and fighting, of beating one another with wicked fists. It is not
this kind of fast that will help them make themselves heard in heaven.
Isa 58:5 Is this the fast I chose? A day to grieve yourself? Bow with your head down like a reed?
Sleeping in rough, ashy clothes? Is that what you call a fasting day that pleases the Lord?
Isa 58:6 Isn't it rather the fast that I prefer to remove the chains of injustice, untie the ropes of the
yoke, set the oppressed free, and break all yoke?
Isa 58:7 Isn't it sharing your food with the hungry one and giving lodging in your house to the poor
man who has nowhere to live? Isn't it dressing the nude and stop hiding from your relatives?
Isa 58:8 Then thy light shall shine as dawn, and thy wounds shall heal soon. Your honesty will go
before you, and the glory* of the Lord will follow you.
Isa 58:9 So thou shall call, and the Lord shall answer. You will shout for help and the Lord will say,
"Here I am." If you remove from you the oppression, the accusing finger and the wicked
words,
Isa 58:10 if you share your food with which he is hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then thy light shall shine like dawn. Your shadows will be like midday light.
Isa 58:11 The Lord will guide you permanently, give satisfaction to your needs when you are in dry
lands, and strengthen your bones. You'll be like a garden, like a spring of water that never dries.

In Isaiah's day religious people fasted and followed the practices requested of the Law, it could be
said that they fulfilled their religious duties, but it was only to obey the religious patterns of the
time, what God was asking of the nation was to live according to the principles that he had
established of justice, not only to carry out religious practices.

Today the church carries out many religious practices and believe that they are fulfilling their duty
as a church, yet they are disassociated from the social reality in which they are immersed. They
have forgotten to love others and to live their faith in the day-to-day in a real way, beyond
following a number of religious patterns. The question we need to ask today is

What kind of fast am I doing?

Take some time to pray and evaluate how you live your faith in the day-to-day, ask the Lord to
help you perform a true fast that helps others.