Tomorrow is our last day of Commission.  I cannot believe we have gone three months here!! It’s been so fast and so much is a blur.  Our time here has been absolutely life changing and has filled me with such excitement for the future.  That said it is definitely time to come home, we miss our friends and family and church and people who speak properly.

I did feel stirred to post something today in class though.  Ian Rutherford, one of the instructors here, was speaking on Isaiah 56, 57 and 58…in one session.  I was so tired today that I honestly thought I might fall asleep but what Ian shared I found compelling and felt it would be worth just popping a little bit of it on here.  As most of you will know, I am currently in the middle of a 40 day fast and so fasting has been a topic which has jumped out at me recently.  If I’m honest the concept of fasting being a part of normal christian living is quite a new concept to me and my journey into fasting is really only just beginning which saddens me, as there is such power in fasting.  Not that we can change God by fasting, but by fasting we give God a chance to change us, to cultivate a right hunger for Him, above other things we desire.  I was thinking about times when I would consider myself to have chosen God over something or something over God and was challenged by the fact that it was even ever a choice.  Our default should be God.  Ian has often said that it’s not a question of if you’ll worship but of what you’ll worship.  We were made to worship and we we have the choice of what we worship.  What we spend our time thinking about, what we spend our resources, our time and money on, that is what we are worshiping, so is it God or is it something else?  Not that the other things in our lives are bad or wrong or unrighteous but if we are considering them above God, if they are becoming our priorities then we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that we are worshiping an idol.  So why don’t we choose God every time, why aren’t we consumed with being with Him and in His presence all the time, why are we satisfied with a couple of hours a week?  The answer, certainly for me is that we do things that we consider fun, we do the things that bring us joy and I have never really enjoyed prayer before so it has never been a priority to me.  The Lord is really working on my heart in this and I am beginning to appreciate that our God is a God of joy, he created it and wants for us to enjoy Him.  When we connect with His heart through prayer and worship we begin to experience that joy and the more we do that the more we associate God with enjoyment.  As with anything you need to cultivate your relationship with Him, not because we have to or He’ll punish us but because it’s fun to talk to Him and because He desires us and He enjoys us and we can enjoy Him.  Connected to that I’ve had to shift my understanding of what pray actually is.  I’ve always thought of it as speaking a list of request to a God who is silent, who may not answer depending on His mood with me.  Not only is that not pray, it is a really wrong view of God.  One of the first things that impacted me whilst we have been here is that God likes me.  He’s not mostly sad or mostly mad but He is mostly glad when He thinks about me.  So when I pray I am praying to a perfect God who loves me, likes me, desires to be with me, is passionate about me, has chosen me, will listen to me, will answer me, wants the best for me, has plans for me, wants to bless me, wants to prosper me, I could go on and on.  And when I pray it is not a boring recital of wants and needs.  It is praising what He’s done, worshiping and meditating on His character, it is singing in the spirit and in my understanding, it is dynamic, enjoyable and most of all, He talks back when you ask Him questions.  When you give Him a chance He will answer you because He loves you, likes you, desires to be with you, is passionate about you, has chosen you, will listen to you, will answer you, wants the best for you, has plans for you, wants to bless you, wants to prosper you and so on.  God, I ask that You would reveal Your heart for each of us, reveal Your love for us.  Unlock the truths about prayer and give us a passion to be in Your presence.

Wow, that was unexpected.  I really had no intention of sharing all of that.  What I wanted to to share with you was how Isaiah 56, 57 and 58 are all connected.  I’ve heard people use Isaiah 58:6 to advocate the position of not fasting but doing works instead.  But having read 56 and 57 to get the context for 58 it becomes clear that this is not what the Lord, through Isaiah, was saying.  Firstly, if you are a gentile believer, which most of us are, you should read 56:1-8 over and over.  It speaks of God’s “grafting in” of the gentiles into a position of intimacy greater than that of a father – son/daughter relationship.  the end of 56 and most of 57 speak of the evil idol worship that Israel was embroiled in.  So when you get to 58 you realise that the Israelites may have been fasting and making sacrifices to God but they were also sacrificing children and worship idols.  God was speaking about the heart posture of the Israelites, who were simply fasting as a religious act and out of a false sense of duty, rather than out of love and wanting to be close to God.  What God is referring to in 58:6 is not “doing” works but rather fasting for and contending for God’s justice and righteousness, the very things He talks of in 56:1.  And I’m not saying that we don’t do, but I am saying that our action should be an overflow of our heart.  As we fast an internalise God’s justice and righteousness, as we seek Him for justice in the land and righteousness in people, as we fast to change our hearts and be closer to Him, acts of justice and righteousness will come as a natural next step, rather than a forced action, devoid of emotion or conviction.  Anyway, I found it quite helpful to go through these verse, if you get a chance over the next couple of days to read through them (it shouldn’t take too long) I would encourage you to.  It might just change your view on things…maybe.

Well, I apologies for all that and I hope it all makes sense.  The Lord is speaking to us and we need to listen. The call to live lives rooted in the word of God, where weekly fasting and daily prayer and bible study time are a part of our routines is at the forefront of God’s mind right now, as He prepares us for all that this our short time on earth with entail.  I pray that the Lord would direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ, to live lives worthy of Him who created all thing and to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Bless y’all!!