(I apologize that the formatting is weird today. I don't know what's causing it.)
In our last study session the Lord said that many of the people were only going through the motions of religion. They were calling on Him only when they were in trouble. Even when they set aside a day to fast and call out to Him, they were doing it in the wrong attitude. They were oppressing their workers, getting in arguments with each other, going through the day however it pleased them, and generally acting in ungodly ways.
Now the Lord talks about what a true fast is. "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? 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?" (Isaiah 58:6-7)
There is value in fasting and praying but not if we are living in unrepentant sin. If we intend to set aside a day for fasting and for calling upon God, we need to examine our hearts before bringing our specific issue to Him. He has no obligation to recognize our day of fasting if we have sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The people He describes in the verses above are people who have sin in their lives that needs to be dealt with. We can see by what He says about them that they are allowing injustice to prevail, that they are oppressing their fellow citizens, that they are inhospitable to travelers, that they are not concerned about the needy folks among them, and that they are turning a blind eye even to the needs of their own family members.
The Lord Jesus said that people with these attitudes won't fare well in the judgment. He said that not caring about our fellow man is the same as not caring about Him. Jesus loves everyone and He gave His life for everyone. If we don't have a heart for our fellow man, we are not displaying a heart like Christ's. Indeed, we would have to question whether we belong to Christ at all. When we are cold-hearted about the needs of others, Jesus says this to us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me." (Matthew 25:45)
What happens when people belong to Christ, love their fellow man, and care about the needs of their fellow man? The Lord Lord will bless them. "Then your light will break through 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. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I." (Isaiah 58:8-9a)
The Lord is not obligated to answer prayers if we are living in unrepentant sin. He is within His rights only to hear prayers of contrition for those sins. Once we have dealt with what is standing between us and Him, we can come to Him in confidence that He will hear (do something about) our problems.
This doesn't mean He will answer our prayers in exactly the way we expect, but it means He will do what is best about our situation. It means we will have His help, His comfort, His provision, and His peace. He will come to our aid. If He does not answer us in exactly the way we expect, it is because the way He intends to answer us will turn out for a greater purpose. For example, there was a very big problem in my life that I was praying about earlier this year. It was something I really needed solved. It was something I truly felt the Lord wanted to solve. He did solve it, only not in the way I expected. He allowed a difficult situation to come into my life and He worked out this problem and several others at the same time by dealing with everything in a way I didn't expect!of the people were only going through the motions of religion. They were calling on Him only when they were in trouble. Even when they set aside a day to fast and call out to Him, they were doing it in the wrong attitude. They were oppressing their workers, getting in arguments with each other, going through the day however it pleased them, and generally acting in ungodly ways.
Now the Lord talks about what a true fast is. "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? 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?" (Isaiah 58:6-7)
There is value in fasting and praying but not if we are living in unrepentant sin. If we intend to set aside a day for fasting and for calling upon God, we need to examine our hearts before bringing our specific issue to Him. He has no obligation to recognize our day of fasting if we have sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The people He describes in the verses above are people who have sin in their lives that needs to be dealt with. We can see by what He says about them that they are allowing injustice to prevail, that they are oppressing their fellow citizens, that they are inhospitable to travelers, that they are not concerned about the needy folks among them, and that they are turning a blind eye even to the needs of their own family members.
The Lord Jesus said that people with these attitudes won't fare well in the judgment. He said that not caring about our fellow man is the same as not caring about Him. Jesus loves everyone and He gave His life for everyone. If we don't have a heart for our fellow man, we are not displaying a heart like Christ's. Indeed, we would have to question whether we belong to Christ at all. When we are cold-hearted about the needs of others, Jesus says this to us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me." (Matthew 25:45)
What happens when people belong to Christ, love their fellow man, and care about the needs of their fellow man? The Lord Lord will bless them. "Then your light will break throughIn our last study session the Lord said that many of the people were only going through the motions of religion. They were calling on Him only when they were in trouble. Even when they set aside a day to fast and call out to Him, they were doing it in the wrong attitude. They were oppressing their workers, getting in arguments with each other, going through the day however it pleased them, and generally acting in ungodly ways.
Now the Lord talks about what a true fast is. "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? 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?" (Isaiah 58:6-7)
There is value in fasting and praying but not if we are living in unrepentant sin. If we intend to set aside a day for fasting and for calling upon God, we need to examine our hearts before bringing our specific issue to Him. He has no obligation to recognize our day of fasting if we have sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The people He describes in the verses above are people who have sin in their lives that needs to be dealt with. We can see by what He says about them that they are allowing injustice to prevail, that they are oppressing their fellow citizens, that they are inhospitable to travelers, that they are not concerned about the needy folks among them, and that they are turning a blind eye even to the needs of their own family members.
The Lord Jesus said that people with these attitudes won't fare well in the judgment. He said that not caring about our fellow man is the same as not caring about Him. Jesus loves everyone and He gave His life for everyone. If we don't have a heart for our fellow man, we are not displaying a heart like Christ's. Indeed, we would have to question whether we belong to Christ at all. When we are cold-hearted about the needs of others, Jesus says this to us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me." (Matthew 25:45)
What happens when people belong to Christ, love their fellow man, and care about the needs of their fellow man? The Lord Lord will bless them. "Then your light will break throughIn our last study session the Lord said that many of the people were only going through the motions of religion. They were calling on Him only when they were in trouble. Even when they set aside a day to fast and call out to Him, they were doing it in the wrong attitude. They were oppressing their workers, getting in arguments with each other, going through the day however it pleased them, and generally acting in ungodly ways.
Now the Lord talks about what a true fast is. "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? 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?" (Isaiah 58:6-7)
There is value in fasting and praying but not if we are living in unrepentant sin. If we intend to set aside a day for fasting and for calling upon God, we need to examine our hearts before bringing our specific issue to Him. He has no obligation to recognize our day of fasting if we have sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The people He describes in the verses above are people who have sin in their lives that needs to be dealt with. We can see by what He says about them that they are allowing injustice to prevail, that they are oppressing their fellow citizens, that they are inhospitable to travelers, that they are not concerned about the needy folks among them, and that they are turning a blind eye even to the needs of their own family members.
The Lord Jesus said that people with these attitudes won't fare well in the judgment. He said that not caring about our fellow man is the same as not caring about Him. Jesus loves everyone and He gave His life for everyone. If we don't have a heart for our fellow man, we are not displaying a heart like Christ's. Indeed, we would have to question whether we belong to Christ at all. When we are cold-hearted about the needs of others, Jesus says this to us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me." (Matthew 25:45)
What happens when people belong to Christ, love their fellow man, and care about the needs of their fellow man? The Lord Lord will bless them. "Then your light will break through 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. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I." (Isaiah 58:8-9a)
The Lord is not obligated to answer prayers if we are living in unrepentant sin. He is within His rights only to hear prayers of contrition for those sins. Once we have dealt with what is standing between us and Him, we can come to Him in confidence that He will hear (do something about) our problems.
This doesn't mean He will answer our prayers in exactly the way we expect, but it means He will do what is best about our situation. It means we will have His help, His comfort, His provision, and His peace. He will come to our aid. If He does not answer us in exactly the way we expect, it is because the way He intends to answer us will turn out for a greater purpose. For example, there was a very big problem in my life that I was praying about earlier this year. It was something I really needed solved. It was something I truly felt the Lord wanted to solve. He did solve it, only not in the way I expected. He allowed a difficult situation to come into my life and He worked out this problem and several others at the same time by dealing with everything in the way that was best. By doing it His way, He worked out more things that I had even asked for!In our last study session the Lord said that many of the people were only going through the motions of religion. They were calling on Him only when they were in trouble. Even when they set aside a day to fast and call out to Him, they were doing it in the wrong attitude. They were oppressing their workers, getting in arguments with each other, going through the day however it pleased them, and generally acting in ungodly ways.
Now the Lord talks about what a true fast is. "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? 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?" (Isaiah 58:6-7)
There is value in fasting and praying but not if we are living in unrepentant sin. If we intend to set aside a day for fasting and for calling upon God, we need to examine our hearts before bringing our specific issue to Him. He has no obligation to recognize our day of fasting if we have sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The people He describes in the verses above are people who have sin in their lives that needs to be dealt with. We can see by what He says about them that they are allowing injustice to prevail, that they are oppressing their fellow citizens, that they are inhospitable to travelers, that they are not concerned about the needy folks among them, and that they are turning a blind eye even to the needs of their own family members.
The Lord Jesus said that people with these attitudes won't fare well in the judgment. He said that not caring about our fellow man is the same as not caring about Him. Jesus loves everyone and He gave His life for everyone. If we don't have a heart for our fellow man, we are not displaying a heart like Christ's. Indeed, we would have to question whether we belong to Christ at all. When we are cold-hearted about the needs of others, Jesus says this to us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me." (Matthew 25:45)
What happens when people belong to Christ, love their fellow man, and care about the needs of their fellow man? The Lord Lord will bless them. "Then your light will break through 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. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I." (Isaiah 58:8-9a)
The Lord is not obligated to answer prayers if we are living in unrepentant sin. He is within His rights only to hear prayers of contrition for those sins. Once we have dealt with what is standing between us and Him, we can come to Him in confidence that He will hear (do something about) our problems.
This doesn't mean He will answer our prayers in exactly the way we expect, but it means He will do what is best about our situation. It means we will have His help, His comfort, His provision, and His peace. He will come to our aid. If He does not answer us in exactly the way we expect, it is because the way He intends to answer us will turn out for a greater purpose. For example, there was a very big problem in my life that I was praying about earlier this year. It was something I really needed solved. It was something I truly felt the Lord wanted to solve. He did solve it, only not in the way I expected. He allowed a difficult situation to come into my life and He worked out this problem and several others at the same time by dealing with everything in the way that was best. By doing it His way, He worked out more things that I had even asked for! 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. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I." (Isaiah 58:8-9a)
The Lord is not obligated to answer prayers if we are living in unrepentant sin. He is within His rights only to hear prayers of contrition for those sins. Once we have dealt with what is standing between us and Him, we can come to Him in confidence that He will hear (do something about) our problems.
This doesn't mean He will answer our prayers in exactly the way we expect, but it means He will do what is best about our situation. It means we will have His help, His comfort, His provision, and His peace. He will come to our aid. If He does not answer us in exactly the way we expect, it is because the way He intends to answer us will turn out for a greater purpose. For example, there was a very big problem in my life that I was praying about earlier this year. It was something I really needed solved. It was something I truly felt the Lord wanted to solve. He did solve it, only not in the way I expected. He allowed a difficult situation to come into my life and He worked out this problem and several others at the same time by dealing with everything in the way that was best. By doing it His way, He worked out more things that I had even asked for!
The Lord is not obligated to answer prayers if we are living in unrepentant sin. He is within His rights only to hear prayers of contrition for those sins. Once we have dealt with what is standing between us and Him, we can come to Him in confidence that He will hear (do something about) our problems.
This doesn't mean He will answer our prayers in exactly the way we expect, but it means He will do what is best about our situation. It means we will have His help, His comfort, His provision, and His peace. He will come to our aid. If He does not answer us in exactly the way we expect, it is because the way He intends to answer us will turn out for a greater purpose. For example, there was a very big problem in my life that I was praying about earlier this year. It was something I really needed solved. It was something I truly felt the Lord wanted to solve. He did solve it, only not in the way I expected. He allowed a difficult situation to come into my life and He worked out this problem and several others at the same time by dealing with everything in the way that was best. By doing it His way, He worked out more things that I had even asked for!
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