We ask, “What are you going to give up for Lent?” Let’s ask an Isaiah question, “What are you going to add to your life for Lent?” Today, and for the following days, we will consider and explore the Isaiah Fast (Isaiah 58:5-11). We will think about, not what we give up in our lives in fasting, which is all well and good, but what we can add to our lives. Be sure, you cannot do these things without a large measure of self-sacrifice and surrender. We want to add these things, not merely for the 40 days prior to Holy Week, but add them to our lives as a way of life. Read the passage.
Isaiah 58:5-7 (NIV)
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
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?
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 him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
