Justice and Fasting

If you read my blog last year you know that one of my favorite passages was (and still is) Micah 6:8. "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

I have spent a good bit of time thinking about justice and searching the Word for revelation about what it means to act justly. I still have many questions about what justice really means, but lately another scripture has been on my heart, and I would like to share some of my thoughts.

For many years I have enjoyed some of the passages in Isaiah, but it was not until recently, as I was thinking about the subject of fasting, that I discovered Isaiah 58. In my Bible the chapter is entitled "True Fasting", and the early verses talk about what a fast should not be. I like to begin reading at verse 6, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke? 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 him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Some thoughts and observations:
We are told that this is the kind of fasting that God desires. However, reading on we do not see the "normal" fasting activities of abstinence from eating, and spending all day in prayer. Instead we are told to act with justice, help the needy, and set the oppressed free.
How, I ask myself, is this fasting? Perhaps because it means abstinence from our selfishness and apathy in the face of the needs around us.
In any case, there is something about this passage that speaks to my heart, as though to say, "This is what God wants you to do."

Recently I read a book entitled "A Seasick Doctor", about a doctor on one of the first Mercy Ships. I absolutely loved the book, not because it was an exciting tale, but rather because the calling of the doctor, to work with the poor and downtrodden, resonated with my heart.

I don't know yet what God has in store for us, but I am convinced that wherever He has us, we are called to minister to the poor, the needy, the sick, the orphans, the widows, and the oppressed.