The Fasting God Wants

“This is the fasting I wish: releasing those bound unjustly...setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke, sharing your bread with the hungry...” 

Isaiah 58:6-7

I was listening to the testimony of David Wood. He’s totally crazy, was. He’s a changed man now, but before he was a sociopath who hit his father on the head repeatedly until his father became brain damaged. David choked a friend, and didn’t care at all when his best friend died from a parasailing accident. When he was in jail, he met Randy who was a Christian. Randy turned himself in for 21 felonies and David thought that was stupid. He was constantly ridiculing Randy and his faith. When Randy would fast for 7 days, David would fast for 10. Randy decided to fast for 40 days like Jesus. David decided to fast for 42 days. The prison staff thought he was killing himself because he would black out and fall, so on the 11th day, they put him in an isolation room where he could be watched. He was there all alone with books on philosophy , science, the Bible, and the apologetic books Randy lent him and he would study them. He studied the Bible with the intention of beating Randy at his arguments. 

It was not long after that this atheist began to realize the truth. It registered that believing life was formed without any intelligence behind it was extraordinarily stupid when even the bricks in his prison cell could not have been put together like that. Lying in his prison cell, David asked God to forgive him and prayed, “God, I don’t know if I’m going to believe in you tomorrow but I believe in you right now. If you can do anything with me, you’re welcome to it.” Now, David goes around telling everyone, even jihadists, he’s a Christian. He evangelized Nabeel Qureshi, the Christian apologist, who wrote the book, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”. 

David Wood was chained, imprisoned, and now he is free. Many people are bound by anxieties, fear, insecurities, poverty, emotional wounds, sickness, depression. They may be our neighbor, our officemate, our friend. We can pray for them, talk to them, love them, share our blessings, but especially not turn our back on them in indifference. That is the fasting God wants us to do this Lenten season.