I was praying last night about how it feels like there’s a barrier between us and God, between His promises and their actual fulfillment in our lives. I asked to know if this feeling is a deception of the enemy, or if there really is a block.
Isaiah 58 is what I got. And after reading it, I felt like I’d been gut-punched. Any honest person living in America today would feel feel punched by this … and rightly so. Somehow, we’ve gotten disconnected from the truth and each other. We think we’re minding our own business, living our life, doing the best we can and that we’re “good people.”
But what’s the true measure of this assessment? Our intention? Frightfully thin. I’m not saying that the things of God aren’t important to us, but they have to be more than theoretical, more than our own personal mythology that makes us feel good but never really finds it’s way down into the bedrock of our lives.
The ways of God have to actually be put into practice day in and day out, to BE the works that – as James 2:18 says – prove our faith.
Here’s the whole chapter in context.
ISAIAH 58:
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is this not 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?
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.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in darkness, and your night will become like noonday.
The LORD will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Paths to Dwell in.
- If you keep your feet from breaking my Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day
- If you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable
- If you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words …
Then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
And what is ‘the inheritance’ of Jacob? It’s the fullness and power of the Gospel, making us (finally) into a new creation, which was the point of all of it from the beginning!
None of this is about becoming legalistic. It’s about doing what is RIGHT. Not in the eyes of man, but in the eyes of God.
Grace liberates and motivates us to live like we’ve been saved from something awful (we have) so that we can then help others who truly need help.
Our own healing and light won’t shine until we humble ourselves, repent, and start consistently doing what pleases the heart of God.
Regardless of the blow-back from society.
For the Lights and the Rights,
