A Father who cheers us on

Pastor Juliet opens with a Christmas memory of her family surprising her at the gym, where her kids tried to copy her box jumps and pull-ups while she cheered them on. She sees a picture of how we come to God with our accolades as if to impress Him, when His response is simply, "I made the universe. Well done, baby." God wants us to copy Him and be with Him, and He cheers us on even when we get it wrong. She prays that the Spirit would teach the church to look a little more like Jesus every day.

Isaiah 58: the reading before every fast

Continuing Elan's series on spiritual practices, with solitude, community, and Bible reading still to come, Pastor Juliet turns to Isaiah 58. In the synagogue this passage from the prophets was read on the day of fasting, so it serves as God's own guidebook for how to fast His way rather than the way we feel like doing it. The church stands as she reads the whole chapter: God's rebuke of a people who seek Him eagerly yet exploit workers, quarrel, and strike each other on the very day of their fast, and His description of the fast He chooses, which looses the chains of injustice, shares food with the hungry, shelters the poor, and ends with the promise that "you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls."

Currency or relationship?

After recapping Matthew 6, praying with the whole heart, levav, and without legalism or hypocrisy, Pastor Juliet shows that in Isaiah's day the people fasted religiously, to show off, and then blamed God for not delivering. They treated fasting as currency rather than relationship, like giving a gift in a love language the other person does not receive. Scripture is full of reasons people fasted, from national repentance to Esther changing political law, and God does bless fasting because it is a sign of seeking His face. But prayer is a conversation with God, not a trip to the cash point, and God's way of fasting requires humility. She also clarifies that abstaining from shows or social media is abstinence, not biblical fasting; every account of fasting in Scripture involves physical food, though pulling away from distractions alongside it is wise.

The duality God rejects

God answered the people's complaint by pointing out that on the day of their fast they sought their own pleasure, the Hebrew chephets, the matters they value, while oppressing workers and fighting each other. Pastor Juliet admits how familiar this is: a beautiful quiet time in the morning followed by decorative words when someone cuts you off in traffic. If you are going to fast, fast the whole thing and take away wickedness. Verses 6 through 9 give the etiquette: loose the bonds of wickedness, break every yoke, feed the hungry, house the homeless, stop pointing the finger.

Satisfy the desire of the afflicted

Two different Hebrew words are translated desire in verses 10 and 11. The first, nephesh, means the throat, breath, and living being, the deadened part of a person's soul. The second returns to chephets, the things you value. If you pour life into the lifeless parts of the people around you, God will fill up the matters you care about. He is not trying to empty us but to create a river so every need is met.

Mature fasting is a stewardship issue

The heart posture for this fast must be humility, repentance, forgiveness, and a willingness to lay our lives down for the messy lives of others. Mature fasting means being willing to give away the very thing we are asking God to bless us with. Fasting is not a breakthrough issue but a stewardship issue: if God forgives, will you turn back? If He guides, will you submit? If He delivers you from addiction, will you lay it down for good? Like the Israelites who got out of Egypt but could not get Egypt out of them, we must become trustworthy, because to whom much is given, much is required.

Together, not alone

Pastor Juliet closes with Jesus' prayer in John 17 that His followers would be one, and speaks to the rebels who resist a corporate fast; she was one of them. But at the start of a new year, with the global church fasting and praying together, how much more powerful would it be for the entire church to lay down its own agenda and step into the will of God? Jumping in is a sign of spiritual maturity.