Fasting Friday

I pray that if you've continued to fast and pray another week or that you are reading this for the first time, that you always make sure to do an internal check on yourself. Look and see what's inside that maybe needs a tune up so you don't wear out!! Here's Friday's email:

Hey New Life!

End of the week and a day closer to Sunday, January 18th when we bring ALL our requests and needs to God and ask for Him to breakthrough in those relational, financial, emotional, physical and spiritual areas of our lives and those lives of others around us.

Going into the weekend, I am confident of one thing: God will hear us and answer!!!

What His answer is I do not know for sure, but one thing I do know for sure is that I don’t want Him to answer us the way He did to Israel through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 58.

‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
Why aren’t you impressed?
‘We have been very hard on ourselves,
And you don’t even notice it!’.

“I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
You keep oppressing your workers.
What good is fasting,
When you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
Will never get you anywhere with me.”

Just like my note yesterday, this reminds us that “how” we fast is more important than “what” we fast, and that our attitude during the fasting weighs more on the mind of God than the act of fasting. As you have been fasting, what has been your effort to listen to the voice or leading of God each day? Have you seen things around you differently or is the routine of your day still “the same old” routine?

On Monday, I had just got done shopping at Walmart when I was walking to the other end of the building to exit and I noticed a man who was sitting down and staring straight at me. I looked away like it was no big deal, but when I looked his way again he was still staring right at me. So I took that moment and asked how he was doing. Arthur tells me that he just got released from the hospital that day from having pneumonia. I felt like I was supposed to stay and talk with Arthur a little more and as I did, he shared that he had been in the hospital since December 26th and couldn’t remember most of his stay there.

At the end of our conversation, I asked if I could pray with him. When I was done praying, he lifted his head up to me, tears in his eyes, and said “I needed that today.”

I told you about that, not to show off my ability to listen to God’s promptings, but to remind you that this fasting is not all about you! It is all about God and us taking time to connect deeper with Him, hear His voice and respond to what He tells us. Yes! God will hear us on Sunday, January 18th at 10:00 AM and I believe breakthrough will shake loose from that time, but are you hearing God today? Breakthrough might be waiting for someone else, through you, and all that is needed to see that breakthrough happen is you listening and responding to God’s direction.

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
Lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
And remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry,
And give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
And do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
And your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
And the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

Now that is the answer I want to hear from God, don’t you? – “YES, I AM HERE!!!!”

Get ready for Sunday, January 18th!!
Pastor David

Have an incredible weekend!!!