After a dense weekend of General Conference talks, I am now reading Isaiah 58. The topic: fasting; how to approach it in the right way and consequences of a good fast.
Fasting is hard for me. It always has been. Thirst and hunger seem to be impulses I can't control very well. It is definitely the case that I need to learn to control my appetites!
And so I am grateful for this chapter because it teaches me the proper way to approach fasting.
Fasting is not to reach God with our personal wishes or to inflict unkind actions and words unto others (perhaps as when fasting puts us in a bad mood because we are focused on those appetites we can't control). Fasting is not a time to be sad and mournful either.
Fasting is meant to:
1. Break the bands of wickedness - as in everything that prevents us from seeing and experiencing the light of Christ in this world.
2. Set free the oppressed and break the yokes that oppress them (maybe those around us who are experiencing hard trials).
3. Share our bread with the hungry and open our homes to the poor, cover the naked, welcome our friends and family (I wish we could do community service on fast Sundays instead of Sunday school classes! and I suppose we can. We just have to make it happen).
Consequences:
1. We will be able to share the light of Christ / others will see that light in us. Our light will shine in the darkness.
2. Blessings of health.
3. We will personify righteousness in the world.
4. The glory of the Lord will protect us (as in "a shadow by day and a pillar by night").
5. The Lord will answer when we call upon Him. He will be available to help us.
6. The Lord will guide us continually and feed us spiritually and materially.
7.We will be as "a spring of water, whose waters fail not" - maybe this means that we will be able to share words of eternal life - teachings of Christ - which never fail, or that we will experience charity which never faileth.
8. We will be called the "repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in" - or by rectifying and sharing our witness of the eternal truths of God, we will be able to correct the wrong perceptions so many have of the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ and will be able to bring them (back) on the safety of the Covenant Path. Another word for this concept might be "reconciliation". Our assignment is to reconcile the world with God and Christ:
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)
Missionaries, Prophets and Apostles do this. We can / should too!
All this + honoring the Sabbath (not doing things in our own way, not looking to satisfy our own pleasure, speaking the words of Christ - and not our own) will bring about the ultimate and most desired consequence: "ride upon the high places of the earth" and be fed by the Lord with the heritage of Jacob. These are blessings for covenant keepers: riding upon high places for me means to experience the incredible miracles President Nelson is asking us to watch for when we act with faith in Christ and actively stay on the covenant path. They are the most sacred experiences we will have in this mortal life, signs from God to us that He is real, present, aware, generous, loving.
May we actively seek to learn how to better be the "repairers of the breach" and how to restore the path to those who have wondered off or don't know of its existence - through fasting, prayer, studying, personal revelation, understanding of our talents and spiritual gifts that we can use to reconcile men to God and Christ / gather Israel.
