Looking at the Scripture

So I have been told that I have to make this next blog a reflection of my thoughts on a specific Scripture passage. Here is the Scripture passage:

"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord? "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? Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. (Isaiah 58:5-8 NIV)"


So there is the Scripture. What do I think of it?  I was told to discuss how affected what I was doing.  I assume that meant what I was doing in Hong Kong but I do not want to limit this Scripture to a specific point in my life.  I feel that if I only talk about how this Scripture affects me in Hong Kong then I will have missed the purpose of this Scripture.

My understanding of this Scripture is that Isaiah is contemplating what it means to fast.  God calls us all to fast so how do we respond in that?  I have been guilty of fasting how Isaiah describes in the beginning of this passage.  It is a fast that lasts for a day.  It is a temporary fast with a temporary burden for the reason I am fasting.

God calls us to fast but not in a temporary since.  Our lives should be a constant act of fasting.  Now I am not saying we should give up food.  Fasting does not always mean from food.  The fasting Isaiah is talking about is a fasting from his own ambition, schedule, or purpose.

A fast from one's self, that is acceptable to the Lord, does not last for one day.  Everyday we live for God and for the glory of God.  We should have a burden for His people.  We should have a burden of the broken and discarded people of this world.  We should have a burden for those who do not have a relationship with Christ.  We should have a burden for our fellow Christians to grow more in Christ.

So how does that apply to what I am doing?  My life is not my own.  It is the Lord's and I will follow Him.  Honestly, I will fall short at times and find myself seeking my own desires.  But I am being molded in the image of Christ and I pray that my life looks more like His as I move forward.

I do not want to fast from my own selfish ambition when I am only in Hong Kong.  If I do, then my fast is temporary.  I want to fast from my own ambition for life.  I will go where the Lord leads and serve where the Lord guides me.

Colossians 1:28-29 says this, "Him (God) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."

Romans 14:8 reads this way, "For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."

These verses do not say we should serve God most of the time or when we have the opportunity.  These verses say we are to put aside our own ambitions, whatever they may be, and serve the Lord.