A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

Ses s i on 4: Cu l t i vat i ng Our Commun i on: The I nward Di sc i p l i nes 139

secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

c. The true fast is the lifestyle of obedience to God and justice to the needy, Isa. 58.6-7 – Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? [7] Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

d. See also Ezek. 18.7, 16; Dan. 4.27; Matt. 25.35-40; Luke 11.41; 19.8; 2 Cor. 9.6-10; 1 Tim. 5.10

3. Central principles

a. The spirit of fasting is always to be done in light of God’s desire for our lives (not just the fasting event) to display a commitment to justice and righteousness on behalf of the poor and oppressed, Isa. 58.6-7.

b. Since fasting, like prayer but more than any other discipline, can be done with public display, we must be especially careful not to do it to be seen by others, Matt. 6.16-18.

c. Fasting is to be done before the Lord and for no one else, Zech. 7.4-7 – Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: [5] “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? [6] And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? [7] Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former