MONDAY 21st – This Blog is part of our Every Nation London”24ten” – ten days of prayer & fasting for London and the church.  

It was my turn to make dinner for our kids last night. I’m not the best of cooks – scrambled eggs is about as good as it gets (Of course I can also “braai-beque” pretty well – But I do make the BEST scrambled eggs ever, a sort of German/English mix – delicious, especially with buttered fresh soft white bread on the side…). After 4 days of fasting those eggs definitely looked/smelt like the best ever!  As I served this best ever dinner speciality, I realised again that it is so easy to consider your own needs and what you are denying yourself during fasting, even sometimes being envious of those who do have what you desire.

One part of fasting is identifying with Jesus who put aside His own glory for a season of eternity (?) to identify with fallen man and bring good news to the poor, and bread of life to the hungry.

Listen to how Isaiah 58 speaks about “The fast God has chosen”:

 6 “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?

 7 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 him,
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (If you wish, read full chapter text here)

I don’t know exactly how to apply this practically in New Testament fasting, but it does remind me that I have so much to be thankful for, and so much to give. I am surely among the top 1 % of blessed people on the earth. There are so many needs in my neighbourhood and all over the planet. My prayer is: God, do something in me & us to be more conscious of and willing to serve others in greater need than ourselves. Fasting to give, is more purposeful than fasting to get…