A Chosen Fast!

"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?"

Isaiah 58:6

For many years I have tried to find a specific link between the struggle to free people who are oppressed and being Godly. Isaiah 58:6 says that loosing chains, untying cords, setting the oppressed free, and breaking every yoke is “fasting” that pleases God.

How can that be fasting? Fasting is an act of denying yourself from nourishment for a time to honor God. How can freeing the oppressed be fasting? The answer is simple. When I spend myself setting the oppressed free I am certainly denying myself personal pleasures and even needs for the sake of those in bondage.

This verse is justification of the entire “Freedom” focus that America has trumpeted to the entire world for many years! And the blessings we have enjoyed must have come from our fast from power and oppression. America could have conquered the world militarily and forced many lands to accept our rule. We did not and for that we should be praised.

The greatest bondage and oppression is not being imprisoned and controlled by an evil government. The greatest bondage and oppression comes directly from SIN. Sin controls those who practice it like nothing else in the world. Sin has arms that reach around you and bind you in every way possible.

It honors God when I am “fasting” in the pursuit of breaking the bonds of sin in the lives of oppressed people. There is only one way to break the bonds of sin. When a man comes to know and accept Jesus the chains of sin begin to fall away.

Fast the fast of Isaiah 58:6 and you will be nourished with strength from above!