Is this the fast I have chosen? | Ep. 191

Most of us hear the word fasting and immediately think about food: how long, which meals, what kind of fast, and whether we can “handle” it. But what if that’s not the question God is asking at all? We go to Isaiah 58 and let Scripture confront the motives behind religious sacrifice, especially the kind that looks spiritual on the outside while staying self-focused on the inside. 

We walk through God’s rebuke of performative fasting, then connect it to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 about fasting in secret, without the sad face and the public attention. From there, the conversation turns to a surprising and practical definition of “the fast that I have chosen”: loosening bonds, lifting burdens, freeing the oppressed, and breaking yokes through real generosity. That includes feeding and clothing, but it also reaches into the needs people carry that aren’t visible like loneliness, spiritual affliction, fear, confusion, and seasons of depression. 

Along the way, we talk about conditional “if…then” promises in Scripture and why biblical faith is more than mental agreement. Hearing and obeying changes how we expect God’s guidance, healing, and provision. We also share a personal challenge to go beyond prayer-only concern and step into tangible help, while still keeping responsibility and balance at home. 

If you want a Bible-grounded, conscience-awakening take on fasting, generosity, and serving “the least” as serving Jesus, press play. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Notes From A Message On Generosity

Isaiah 58 And The Wrong Motives

Jesus On Secret Fasting

Self-Imposed Religion And Dreading Fasts

The Fast That Breaks Yokes

Serving “The Least” As Serving Jesus

Let Your Light Shine Through Good Works

If Then Promises And Obedient Faith

Losing Your Life To Find It

A Personal Push To Do More

Repairers, Restorers, And Balanced Responsibility

Don’t Grow Weary Doing Good

Turning From Pleasure To Delight In God

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j - Jesus M. Ruiz 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much-needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose. Thank you for joining with me. Pastor Joe was uh correct that that uh this message came out of his message about two weeks ago. I I take notes in a composition book and I just write them here, and sometimes as I'm hearing the message, uh I'm not only hearing what the minister is saying, but I'm also hearing the Lord. So, you know, uh Pastor Joe was giving us a nice organized list of about four points that he was making. He was nearing the end, and the third point was give without being grieved in doing so, because all you give is his and is not yours. And I think that point was to develop a generous heart. And then his point four was give from what the Lord has blessed you with. That was verse 14, but give of your resources liberally from what the Lord has given you. And I think that point was develop a grateful heart. And then the Lord spoke to me, and he says, Remember, is this the fast that I have chosen? And that's something that he spoke to me a long time ago, and he just kind of reminded me of it, and and and I had to go back into it and look at it again. And it's from Isaiah chapter 58. He speaks to the nation of Israel about their fasting. Um and if we read the first five verses, you you you get actually a glimpse of the heart of the people as they were fasting. Um it says in Isaiah 58:1, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. He's speaking to Isaiah here. He says to Isaiah, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways. And if you stop right there, you think, oh wow, Israel is the nation is seeking him daily, and they delight to know his ways. But then he says this right at the end of it. He says, They seek my face daily, they delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, as if they were a nation that was walking in righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. You see, they were seeking him, they were crying out to him as if they were a nation walking in righteousness, as if they were a naked that did not forsake his ordinances. But if you know anything about Isaiah and who he was ministering to, you know that the nation was deplorable and becoming more and more corrupt as each generation uh was passing. And he said, They take delight in approaching God. And then here you get in the next verse what that what was a glimpse in their heart, because they were saying, Why have we fasted? They say, and you have not seen. So they're challenging God and they're saying, Man, we fasted. How come the Lord's not looking at us? Well, who's what was the purpose of your fasting? Why have we afflicted our souls and and and you don't take no notice? In fact, in the day of your fast, the Lord says, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Oh, well, that doesn't sound good. I'm I'm I'm I'm trying to fast for the Lord, they're saying, and and I'm trying to get his notice, I'm trying to get his attention, and he he just doesn't seem to notice, but he calls them out and he says, in fact, in the day that you fast, you find pleasure. How many of you, when you to when you talk about fasting, when you think about fasting, you thinking about, oh man, oh, I can't wait. When are we gonna fast, Pastor? Be honest now. Y'all looking forward to fasting? Be honest now. That's not something we normally look forward to. But he says, furthermore, in verse 4, indeed you fast for strife and debate. You strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. On the day that you're fasting, there's strife, there's debate, there's arguing, there's there's all of this carnality. If I'll take a new covenant perspective on it, there's all this carnality going on about you as you're supposedly fasting for me, says the Lord. And he says in verse five, is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his own soul, to make him himself feel low and down, is it to bow down like the head of a bull rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes so that he looks all disheveled and all disordered because he's fasting for the Lord. Would you call this a fast? Would you call that an acceptable day of the Lord? He's answering their hearts. Jesus spoke about fasting, and it describes exactly what their real heart was way back in Isaiah. But see, in Jesus' day, they still had this heart. He said in Matthew chapter 6, verse 16 moreover, when you fast, do not look like the hypocrites. What look at look look at those words with a sad countenance, they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Oh, is me. I'm fasting for the Lord. And they're gaining all the attention of the men around them in their community. Oh, he's fasting today. Oh, look at him. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. God has always looked past what you put on the outside, straight to your heart. He knows the motives and intentions of your heart. And Jesus says, but you, when you fast, anoint yourself, wash your face, you know, put that cologne on, put that perfume on, make yourself smell good, like you're not even fasting, like everything is all right, like this is the acceptable day of the Lord. Not that I look all disheveled and I look all forlorn. And no. When you fast, anoint yourself, wash your face, that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in heaven, who is in the secret place, your father who sees in secret, he sees what you're doing, that you're not trying to garner the attention of men, you're not trying to garner the attention of your brothers or your sisters or your pastor or your deacon or the elders. No, you're doing it deep within because you are sincerely seeking the Lord for him and not for the attention of man. In Colossians, Paul spoke about there are things indeed that have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion. In Colossians 2, chapter 23, it's false humility. And it neglects the body, but they're really of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. There are things that we do that maybe we decide to do for whatever reason, tradition, or maybe it was just our own bright idea that we think that this is what pleases God, this is what is gonna get his attention, this is what are gonna cause him to favor me, to surround me with favor if I fast. So when the pastor calls for a fast, how often do we dread quietly within ourselves? Not letting our wife or our husband know what I'm really thinking about this fasting. And and and we dread and we say in our hearts when the pastor calls for a fast, Pastor, how long? Is it a day? Pastor, how long? Is it two days? Pastor, how long? Is it three days? And our flesh inside is oh, I'm just waiting for he's gonna say, how long, how long, how long? And then and then maybe your next question is are we fasting all the meals in the day? All of them? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Or is it just breakfast? O, o, or is it breakfast and lunch? What is it? Because then there's there's types of fasting that we know of in the scriptures. Are we gonna fast food and drink? Remember Esther? Called the three-day fast. Fasting food and drink all day, all night, all day, all night. Now we're we're wondering, is it that type of fast, Pastor? Is it that type of fast, Pastor? Please tell me. I need to get ready for this. Are we fasting a certain type of food? Maybe it's the Daniel fast. Daniel said, no, no, no, no. We're not gonna eat meat, we're not gonna eat wine, just give us vegetables and water. Just give us vegetables and water. Are we gonna do that type of fast, Pastor? I can handle vegetables and water. How long is it again? How long is it again? Or maybe, maybe we're fasting TV shows. Maybe we're fasting our movies, maybe we're fasting the things that we enjoy doing regularly. Some of us may think after all of that, after all of that consideration, and then we we we find out, oh, it's gonna be a certain time of fast. Maybe we think they're in our hearts, maybe I can lose that five pounds I was trying to lose all this time that I've just been struggling with. And all of those, those things, those ponderings, those thinking, uh, is it really about the Lord? Is this the fast that God has chosen? So he says, furthermore, as I go back to Isaiah 58, chapter 6, by the way, this whole lesson is from Isaiah chapter 58. He says in verse 6, is not the fast, is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke. That's the result of the fast that the Lord has chosen. I don't want you to skip over this, and that you break the yoke. Me? When I fast, I'm the one that's breaking the yoke to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to get the oppressed to go free? If you read the next verse, the very next verse, it says, How this happens. How is it that you will lose the wickedness? How is it that you will let the oppressed go free? How is it that you will break every yoke? It says, Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him and not think about fasting. We always think about not eating, not eating, not eating, or not drinking, not drinking, not drinking. Have you thought about fasting this way? Because he says, Is this not the fast that I have chosen? I want to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo the heavy burns. I want to get the oppressed to go free, and I want you to break every yoke. And how are you going to do that? When you share your bread with the hungry. The oppressed is not feeling any more oppressed because now they're getting what they need from the brethren. Or if they're naked, that they're not shivering out in the cold, but they're being given clothing. They're be giving sustenance that they need. And so you become that agent of deliverance. You become that agent that looses the wickedness that's breaking the yoke up off of his children. Jesus talked about on the day of judgment that he's gonna have some on his right and some on his left. You guys know what I'm talking about? Okay, so you guys are on the left hand side. On the right hand side, though, which is not that many people, he says to him, he said, What does he say to them? He says to them, You on my right hand, come, you blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick, you visited me, I was in prison, you came to me. And what did the righteous say? The righteous were dumbfounded. What what what when did we do that? When did we do this, Lord? When did we see you hungry? When did we feed you? When were you thirsty and we gave you to drink? When did we see a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison? And when did we come to you? And the king will answer them and say, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it and to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me. That's the fasting that the Lord is looking for. By God, when I read Isaiah 58, fasting has become altogether another dimension that I'm not considered when I read 58, that fasting is about you meeting the needs of your brethren and setting them free through the things that God has blessed you with. Which is how it tied into so much of what he was speaking when he started talking about points three and points four under generosity. In chapter 58, verse 8, he says, Then your light shall break forth like the morning. And when I saw that word, your light, I immediately thought of when Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men that your good works would be known. That was from Matthew 5, 16. Your light, that's Lee, it dissipates the darkness, it displaces the darkness, and it gets brighter and it gets brighter and it gets brighter until it's not even covered by the horizon. It's now in the sky, and if there's no clouds, it's even brighter and brighter. And that's your good works. When you meet the needs of your brethren, when you meet the, when you clothe them, when you feed them, and and you don't restrict yourself to just thinking naturally because some of our brethren, we live in a society where we basically have most most everybody has what they need. We live in America. America, everybody's clothed, everybody's got food, everybody's got a shelter, everybody's got a house to live. I mean, mostly, but there's a whole lot more that the brethren need than food and clothing, and it needs to be met by the body. So don't restrict yourself to thinking, oh, it's only about food and only about, you know, the ministry that we're trying to build out of this church where we're trying to meet the physical needs of another. I'm not saying that's not applicable. What I'm saying is think beyond that, think higher than that. There's so much more that we can be doing in an effort to meet the needs of our brethren that we need to expand our horizons. We need to stretch out our tent and realize that there's so much more that we have to offer. And it doesn't have to be material, it could be experience, it could be knowledge, it could be the gifts of the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge or the gifts that God has given us that we can be able to speak life, speak the words of life to other people that need to hear so that they can be set free, so that they can be delivered. So let your light shine like the morning. And what's gonna happen is your healing shall spring forth speedily, because sometimes you're broken, sometimes you're hurt, sometimes you're wounded. And there is a saying that hurt people hurt other people, wounded people wound other people. I get that, but if your heart is right with the Lord, if you're still gonna hold fast to Him, even in your brokenness, even in your wounding, you can still minister words of life to somebody else. It doesn't have to hold you back from doing what the Lord wants you to do, and when you do that, then your healing will spring forth speedily, and you will start gaining health, and you will start gaining sustenance and provision and the things that you're desiring in your life because you are sacrificing your life to meet the needs of another. Your righteousness shall go before you. Who's trying to pull the rug out from under me at this place or that place? I don't need to worry because I have put seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and what and what? And all these things shall be added unto you. When you put your brethren first and you meet their needs first, always put them before you. God starts meeting things in your life that that you've been praying for all of this time, but maybe he's held back because he's been waiting on you. Because he sees that you're not willing to move until you get your needs met, and he's like, No, I want you to move first, and I will meet your needs. It says in verse 9, then after all, we just said, then you shall call, and what will happen? The Lord will answer. I'm here. What do you need? What can I do for you? Because you've taken care of my children. I'm here for you. I hear you, I know what you need before you even ask. I'll take care of that. If it says, I always highlight the ifs in the Bible. You listen to me long enough. I always highlight the ifs in the Bible because they're conditional statements. If, da da da da da, then da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and you gotta be pay attention to that. Because the covenant is a covenant of conditions. You have requirements that you need to meet in order for the covenant to be fulfilled, and the Lord has requirements that he's gonna meet. The only difference is the Lord always fulfills his requirements regardless of what you do. He's gonna be faithful no matter what you do. He's not gonna break covenant with you. The only reason a covenant is broken is because you broke it. But if you take away the yoke from your midst, oh, there's that yoke word again. Remember, it said you it said that you will break every yoke. And so he says here just a couple verses later, if you take away the yoke from your midst, the Pointing of the finger, speaking wickedness. I think of Job. I read that and immediately he highlights to me, Job. Had Job done anything wrong that he should deserve, that he should lose his family and his children and his livestock and all that he had. No. But then he had his friends come over. And for about 30 some odd chapters, you're listening to all his friends trying to tell him how how you must have done something wrong. He must have done something. You must have done something wrong. You must have done something wrong. You had to do something wrong because none of this would have happened to you had you done something wrong. But if you take away the yoke from your midst, and what was that yoke? That's the oppression of your brethren around you. That you have a capability, that you have an ability to go and meet their need. If you remove that yoke, if you remove that oppression, if you stop pointing fingers and say, Oh, you deserve that, you shouldn't have done that. That's why you're in the situation you in. There's this time and a place for that because you want repentance, right? Repentance is the acknowledgement of the truth. Yeah, sometimes you got, but if that's all you're doing to just condemn him and leave him in that state, then you've missed the entire point because God wants to restore, He wants to save, He wants to heal, He wants to mend. So you put away the yoke from your mist and you meet the needs of your brethren, you stop pointing the finger and you stop speaking wickedness, and then I think of Psalm 91:15, He shall call upon me and I will answer him, I will be with Him in trouble, I will deliver Him and I will honor Him. Why do I speak about that if then? Because we always want the blessings, but we don't want to meet the requirements to receive that blessing. We appropriate by faith. Faith is not just merely believing with a mental assent that I agree with something and then I'm just supposed to see it. Faith or biblical faith is you hearing the word of God and obeying. And if you walk in that biblical faith, then you should expect whatever it is that God has promised you. That's how you appropriate the promises of God, not just by believing that He promised them. Everybody could believe that He promised them. He was slain from the foundation of the world. Does that mean everybody is saved? No, because everybody hasn't believed the gospel, everybody hasn't obeyed the gospel, even though they might have heard about it. I went to Christian schools all my life, all my life. There was a very real difference between believing that yes, Jesus Christ died, yes, he was buried for three days, and yes, he rose again on the third day. I knew all of that for so many years, I was not born again. I'll tell you when I was born again, that's when I received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and that's when I was baptized in Jesus' name. And then altogether my life became entirely different. There's a difference between knowing something, knowledge of good and evil, knowing right and wrong, and then coming to the tree of life and then becoming a new creature. It's completely, entirely different. I was walking around my school, and the beta club had some section on the wall, and they had all of these, you know, uh different things about the things that they're doing, but they had this quote and it caught my attention. And the quote said, The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. It caught my attention. I thought, man, that that's got some biblical truth to it. And then I looked on the internet, you know, like we all do, Google it. Who said that? Where'd that come from? Anyone know where that came from? Anyone know who said that? Nobody, nobody lives in Canada? All right. Mahatma Gandhi. He said that. That was his quote. Mahatma Gandhi. But I try to view everything in light of the scripture, and the scripture says in Matthew 10, 9, Jesus said, He who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake shall find it. We live in a topsy-turvy world. We live in a topsy-turvy spiritual existence when we come into the to the to the to the sphere, into the auspices of a mighty king. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Everything just changes. And all the things that we were raised in, like in America and in a lot of parts of the world, we believe in hard work, hard work and and doing all of that. And yes, you'll get the rewards. And yes, there's a spiritual principle about sowing and reaping. But this, if I if if I lose my hit my life for his sake, then I will find it. Keep that in mind because that's going to keep reverberating. When I go back to Isaiah 58:10, if you extend your soul to the hungry, if you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall shine like dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as noonday. Have you ever thought about that? God said that the light is as darkness, excuse me, that the darkness is as light unto me. God says the light is as darkness unto me. In other words, I can walk in darkness and I see just like if it was light, just like if it was the noonday. And here it says that if you will meet the hungry soul, if you will satisfy the afflicted soul, you see, it's not just about natural. Sometimes the affliction is a spiritual thing. There's a spiritual dynamic going on in that person, and they need life, they need encouragement, they need to be built up, they need love, they need a community, they need uh God, sometimes it's just it, you sometimes it's just you hanging out with them because they're lonely. Maybe they're fighting with depression because they don't really have friends or they don't have acquaintances. Sometimes you just, instead of you staying home, and instead of you watching the UGA dogs on Saturday, or all the college football on Saturday, and then Sunday comes and then you watch all your NFL games. Instead of you doing all of that, maybe it's you just sacrificing that life to go meet the needs of another. And that that describes to me that when I start putting others first, when I start meeting the needs of those that are afflicted, that the darkness that that is in my life, that the things that I don't understand, the things that I look and I'm like, I don't get it. I don't know why I'm suffering that it it begins to disappear. And you stop walking in darkness because you're putting His word first, in the sense of, I'm gonna meet the needs of my brethren, even though I'm I'm I'm in a situation myself. So it says in Matthew 16, 25, just a couple chapters later, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. This life is representative of this life. I'm I'm willing to lose my life for the for my sake, Jesus said, for my sake, then he will find it. I go back to Isaiah 58 and verse 11. It says, the Lord will guide you continually, and he will satisfy your soul in the drought. I told you, sometimes we're suffering ourselves, but the Lord wants you to still, if you have the means. I'm saying if you have the means, I'm not saying go put $10,000 on your credit card so that you can help somebody, I don't know, go start up a business. I'm not saying that. I'm saying if you have the means, if you have extra clothing, if you have extra food, if you have extra time, if you have the word of God in your heart and you need to meet the afflicted soul, then put aside all of, not all of it, but I mean, just put aside your life, the things that you desire, that you take pleasure in doing, and go meet their need. Go meet their need. He will satisfy your soul in the drought, he will strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Naturally speaking, if you want to get stronger, you go to the gym and you start exercising, you start running on the treadmill and you'll be able to run long. You start benching and you'll be able to strengthen your chest and your arms and all of these other things. But in the spirit, it's not about focusing on yourself, it's about focusing on others and build them up, and then God will strengthen your bones and satisfy you even in the drought. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. If you commit yourself to do the work of the Lord and put aside your life to help meet the needs of others, God is going to bless you. Like you just don't understand, like you just can't comprehend. But if you stay in the thing that I mean, sometimes for men it's real hard because men uh we we men feel responsible for a family. We feel responsible for our wives and for our children, and we've got to bring home the bacon, and we've got to go out and work, and we've got to fix the house, and we've got to fix the car, make sure, and we gotta, we gotta, and sometimes that's our life. And we have a hard time putting aside the things that we feel are our responsibilities to go meet the needs of another person. And I'll be the first to raise my hand that sometimes I feel that way. And I've got to slow, what does it say, slow your roll, pump the brakes? And and just what is the Lord speaking to me? And and I told you I had a heavy heart coming here because I felt like we we we've done that with this particular family where we we they're like an hour from us, but we felt like we didn't want they shared the struggles that they're having. And it's such a hard situation, and we wanted to pray for them, and we did pray for them, but I guess I felt on my heart, we gotta do more. We gotta go to them, and hopefully, peradventure, the Lord will use us to do something mighty in their life. And I still don't know if it's going to come about, but I'm going by faith that that's what we needed to do. And so he's teaching me just as much as he's teaching you that sometimes we gotta put aside our life and meet the needs of another that's hurting, that's struggling, and hopefully help them point them in the right direction. And those of us that do these types of things where we put the service of the kingdom of God before our own lives, it says of us in Isaiah 58:12, those from among you shall build the old waste places. In other words, you're gonna be building back the things that were there that were broken, and you're gonna be a restorer. That's a matter of fact, that's what it says. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations, you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. Now, you could be that as your legacy, or you could be all about yourself and building your own little kingdom, your own little house, your own little family. And I'm not saying to just totally neglect your family, please. It's always got to be a balanced message here. You still have that responsibility. Nobody has the responsibility of taking care of their children, but the parents. I'm not saying to neglect them so you go meet others. No, you got to find a way to meet those responsibilities and those of others around you. So John said, He who loves his life, no, not John, but in the world will keep it for eternal life. And that's a strong word. Hates his life. So I want to close out with a couple verses and and and just I hope that the Spirit will speak to you and encourage you and challenge you to do what I've kind of shared that I've been challenged with. In Galatians 6, 9 and 10, it says, Let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. You see that if again? See that if again? Don't just focus on, hey, don't grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap and then stop there. If what? If we do not lose heart. So we can't lose heart. We've got to realize that we may be sowing and sowing and sowing and maybe not seeing the fruit like we want to, but like I said in the last teaching, growth takes time. We can seed and seed and seed and seed, and we can have it in the ground. We know that we've seeded in that person's life, know that we spoke to them the word, know that we've encouraged them, and we still don't see the change we want, but it doesn't happen overnight. So we need to not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. In the letter that John wrote at the end, right before Revelation, he said in John 3, 16 and 17, by this we know love. Because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's the word. That's a seed that I'm speaking, not to you, just to me, to all of us. We we we right there. We need to come to the point where we're ready to lay down our lives for the brethren. We're ready to put aside our lives, our things that we desire to do for ourselves, and say, I'm gonna rather meet your need. I'm gonna speak into your life, I'm gonna hang out with you this weekend. You know, we're gonna spend some time together. Oh, maybe I need to help you build your garage. Maybe we need to help, you know, mow the grass or whatever. This is how we build up the brethren in the kingdom. It's demonstrating love. Because whoever has this world's goods in the natural, you have this world's goods and you see your brother in need, but don't stay focused on the natural goods. If he shuts up his heart from him, that means he doesn't meet his need, even though he has the ability to. How does he love? How does the love of God abide in him? How is it that if I see my brother or sister struggling and and I kind of say, Oh, I just pray for you, and then walk away, and and don't make a better effort of helping them carry the burden that they're struggling with in the moment? How does the love of God abide in us? It's what we would want if we were struggling, if we were downtrodden, if we were depressed, if we were just just couldn't even lift up our head, wouldn't we want someone to come alongside, even just for a little while, and just help us get through that moment, help us get through that season. So I finished with Isaiah 58, 13 and 14, the last two verses. He says, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, look, is that up there? Do we have that? Isaiah 58, 13. If you if it's not up there, please read it. You you need to read it for yourself. Isaiah 58 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, what does that mean? It says, from doing your pleasure on my holy day. There's the definition. What does it mean to turn away your foot from the Sabbath? Does that mean that you don't uh uh um that you don't recognize or acknowledge the Sabbath day? No, it's from doing your own pleasure on the Sabbath day, which should have been a holy day unto me. But if you delight and you call the Sabbath a delight and you recognize it and consider it that it's a holy day of the Lord, that it's honorable and shall honor him. How? How do you honor the Sabbath in the light of this context of scripture? It says in the next verse, by not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. See, all of that is about you, it's about you satisfying yourself. He wasn't happy if they recognized the Sabbath and didn't do any work, but all they were doing on his holy day was pleasuring themselves. He's got a problem with that. Then, if, remember, if if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath and you don't do your own pleasure and you don't do your own ways and you don't find your own pleasure, or you speak your own words, then shall you shall delight yourself in the Lord? I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. Think on these things, meditate on these things, and ask the Lord, how can I be more fasting as you have chosen, so that I can meet the needs out of love for my brethren. Amen. If you were blessed and appreciate listening to this podcast and you would like to support us in our efforts, consider lifting us up in prayer first. Then remember these four social media buzzwords. Share, like, subscribe, or follow. Share this podcast link with someone else by text, email, or word of mouth in the hopes that they might be uplifted as you are. Like by leaving a positive radio review with whomever you listen to our podcast with. Subscribe to support the show monetarily with the link in our podcast description. Follow us on all our social media platforms. May God bless you and make you prosperous enough as you listen and obey his voice.