The True Essence of Fasting: Aligning Heart and Soul

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Welcome to the Journey of Faith and Transformation, where wisdom,

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love of Jesus Christ guide each and every step that we take.

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My name is Connie Morris, the founder of Diary of a Black Woman,

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and it is my honor to be your host on this spiritual adventure.

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Welcome. Today we start our first series of the Affliction of the Soul.

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And we will journey and we'll explore through the book of Isaiah 58,

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which challenges us on our fasting journey.

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We're going to understand that fasting is more than just abstaining from food.

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It's about aligning our hearts with God's desire for justice, mercy, and devotion.

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So welcome to Podcast One, the foundation of fasting coming from Isaiah 58.

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I am your host today, Connie Morris, and we will journey through the affliction of the soul.

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So some of the topics that we're going to cover today will be misunderstanding

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of fasting, the true fast, blessing of true fasting, and honoring of the Sabbath.

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We will go over about maybe five decrees or more, and that'll be it for today. day.

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Then we will cover two more topics and that'll be the end of that series.

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This is my first time doing a podcast and I think it's so fun,

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but it's so kind of different without an audience.

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But let's, let's get going.

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So I want you to turn to your Bible, your book, open your ears,

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open your heart. And I want you to go to Isaiah 58.

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Now we talk a lot about fasting. People don't talk about fasting anymore.

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We get into a ritualistic feeling about fasting. But before I get into that,

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I want to tell you a little bit about me.

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So Diary of a Black Woman was just founded just as I was walking and praying with God.

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I had just finished writing a couple books, educational books,

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and I just needed like an out.

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I wanted to find something that I can do for God that had nothing to do with education.

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I wanted to do something fun for him. And so he kind of whispered in my ear

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about the Diary of a Black Woman.

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And in my heart, I thought it was like another book.

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And so I kind of set it on the shelf and like, okay, I'll write that one,

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but you got to tell me what's in it, you know, how you want me to do it.

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And then he started talking about devotions, devotionals. And I said, okay.

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And then suddenly my mom reached out to me and says, Connie,

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you know, can you write me some devotionals?

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And I said, sure, I can write you about how many?

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20, 25? I said, okay. Then it started to get to 40. And then now I'm at 111.

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And then I wrote some books of decrees. So it's just been a fun adventure with

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God because we know that God is a God who talks to us.

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He's a God who responds to us.

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So he loves that two-way communication.

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He loves when we ask questions, you know? And so this first series I have, like I said, I got 111.

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We won't go through 111, but we will go, we will just kind of walk through each

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devotional, taking our times.

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And if you heard the introduction, maybe two to four, six, eight,

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depending on how large the devotional series is, but we're going to take our time.

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Like I said, this is my first time doing one of these.

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So we're just going to walk through it, you know?

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Just do it. Let's just do it. I tried it with music, tried it without music.

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You let me know what you like.

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I put a little music in the beginning, probably a little bit of music at the end.

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I think trying to be a DJ and a preacher at the same time, I think is a bit much.

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So I'm going to focus on giving you the word of God and then we'll work with the rest.

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I don't want to spend a whole lot of days editing, trying to make it perfection.

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Because if I do that, I would have never got started because I like things perfect.

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And if they ain't perfect, I don't give it out, but I just want it to flow.

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So enough of that long introduction. Let's get started.

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The first point about the affliction of the soul, and that's so powerful because

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we think fasting is like, I'm going to fast YouTube.

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I'm going to fast a video. I'm going to fast something simple that I can do. I'm going to fast sugar.

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I'm going to fast. You can fast whatever you want, but the Bible has as a way

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that it's not always about food.

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What are you doing? What are you doing during your fast?

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How is your heart? Is your heart fixed on Jesus should be the question when

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you start to decide what you want to fast.

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You get what I'm saying? So let's get going with this. So go with me to Isaiah

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58 verses one through five.

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Let's get God hard on the subject.

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Okay, let's do it. And I'm I'm reading from the NLT, a new, I think that's a new NLT.

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I should have looked that up before.

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Yeah, so look up the NLT, whatever your favorite translation is. I'm using NLT today.

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The New Living Translation title says, True and False Worship.

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Anything we do and everything we do should be unto the Lord.

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It says, Shout with a voice of triumph.

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Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud. Don't be timid.

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Tell my people Israel of their sin.

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Yet they act pious. So I don't know why I'm messing up the scripture. Let's start over.

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It says, shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.

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Shout aloud. Don't be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sin.

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Yet they act so pious. is they come to the temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me.

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They act like a righteous nation. Let's back this up.

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They come to church, act like they want to know about me.

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They act like a righteous nation that will never abandon the laws of its God.

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They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.

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We have fasted before you, they say. Why aren't you impressed?

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We have been very hard on ourselves and don't you even notice it?

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I will tell you why I respond.

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It's because you are fasting to please yourself.

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Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.

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What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?

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This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.

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You humble yourselves by going through the motion of penance,

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bowing your heads like reeds bending in the winds.

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You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting?

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You really think this will please the Lord?

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Wow, that's kind of serious right there. It says, you show up like you want to get next to me.

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You do all the things you think is working to get my attention,

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but yet I'm not noticing you.

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And then you have the nerve to get mad because I don't notice you.

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It says in these verses, God critiques the superficial fasting practices of his people.

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He points out that mere outward displays without a genuine heart change,

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heart change, miss the essence of fasting.

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You know, I think every year, every church goes through some fasting or another in January or July.

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They pick a month. They go through fasting.

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And a particular time, you know, our church was going through a fasting a long

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time ago, not the church I'm at now. and we had to create a fasting plan and

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it was like a Daniel fasting plan.

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And I, you know, honestly, I thought it was kind of a joke because they were

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telling what you couldn't eat on a Daniel fast.

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And so we spent all this time trying to figure out what we couldn't eat.

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And then we had to do a checklist and, and we figure out what we can cook.

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It was just, uh, just to me, it was like the whole heart wasn't in it.

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The whole heart was, what can you eat and what could you eat?

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And I was like, this whole thing is missing the point about,

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isn't getting your heart right for Jesus.

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How about let's cut out the food period and just, just eat a piece of bread

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or whatever you need to do to keep the energy level up and then just pray.

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You know, whatever it does, if it doesn't change your heart and you're all focused

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on what you need or can't eat, what is the purpose of fasting?

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That's just a question, something to think about. When was the last time you fasted?

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So Isaiah 1 through 5, God just pretty much got really told the people off about,

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is this what you call getting close to me?

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You know, and so so God begins to call out the hypocrisy of fasting without

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compassion, emphasizing that it becomes a ritual without meaning if it doesn't

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reflect a sincere relationship with him.

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The people were fasting for personal gain on neglecting justice and mercy.

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Sometimes people fast to lose weight. I'm fasting.

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Then then spend that time getting on the scale every day. I'm guilty of that one.

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Fasting to get closer to God, but also fasting to lose weight. The heart wasn't in it.

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So Isaiah 58 really says we have a misunderstanding of fasting.

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Fasting is an opportunity to get closer to God.

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And that's why I title it the affliction of the soul, because remember it comes

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to the preacher first, check, check, like, whoa, I got this all off.

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I know I want to fast, but what would I gain from this?

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Not what would I get closer to God about. How much weight can I lose?

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Is this going to help my skin complexion? I'm just saying.

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So my final word is fasting should be heartfelt, not ceremonial, not ritualistic.

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It should just be a devotion to God. whatever that

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act is fasting in the bible they did

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it without food you know daniel did

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it because he was in a foreign land he didn't want

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to eat their food then he made it a

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regular practice if you read the book of daniel but

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then as he made that a regular practice he became closer and closer to god he

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got to see inside the spiritual realm he had angelic activity all the time isn't

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that that something that you would like in your experience with devotion to

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God? That's something to think about.

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Let's go to point number two. Let's go to Isaiah 58 verses six through seven.

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It says, and I'm just before that says, I want to read the scripture first.

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It says, no, this is the kind of fasting I want.

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Don't we want what God wants?

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Fasting, fasting I want to free those who are wrongly in prison. Pause.

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To lighten the burden of those who work for you.

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To let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people.

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People to share your food with the hungry and to give shelter to the homeless,

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to give clothes to those who need them and do not hide from the relatives who need your help.

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I think I want to read that again because you ever, you know, we women,

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this is Diary of Black Women, I'm just was talking to my women out there,

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is that we have so much stuff, but yet when it's time to give away stuff, we give away junk.

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And then we wonder why people aren't happy because you gave them some of your junk, right?

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You ever go through your closet and give away some of your good stuff that still

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have tags on it that you really like?

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Let's read that scripture again. It says, no, this is the kind of fast that I want. This is God.

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Free those who are wrongly in prison, okay?

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So if you're in a position and you know somebody's wrongly in prison, hey, set them free.

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Free from your anger, free from your, you know, anything you hold them,

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you know, we can hold people hostage in our mind.

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We can hold people hostage from a debt that they owe us that you know they never can repay.

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Free them from that. be imprisoned from something that you can let them go off.

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Lighten the burden of those who work for you. You ever go to a hotel and you

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know someone's going to clean up your hotel room, but you leave them a big old mess?

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How about putting all your messy towels in one place?

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How about just leaving them a little tip on the table because you know they

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got to clean that mess up?

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Or even if it's not a mess, they might make minimum wage. I don't know.

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But leave them something.

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You know, even I remember I went out of town and I knew the dresses I travel with.

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You know, you travel with these summer dresses and, you know,

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this is your last summer trip.

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I left them all the summer dresses. They were still pretty new, but no big deal.

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You know, let them be happy with something new that you wanted,

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but you just blessed them with it because they working for you. they clean up your mess.

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Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people.

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Share your food with the hungry and give shelter to the homeless.

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How many people walk by the homeless and even snub their nose up at them and

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you don't know their story?

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Some people are one paycheck away from being homeless.

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And you got to remember that when you snub your nose at someone one that can

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come back on you in a harder way.

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So you want to kind of just check yourself a little bit, give clothes to those who need them.

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You know, we give them to the consignment shop, which takes half of your money anyway.

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How about giving them to someone who actually can wear them tomorrow without having to pay for them?

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You know, I love seeing someone in my clothes. You're like, well,

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that looks good on you. Let's do that.

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Do not hide from the relatives that need your help. We know the ones that's going to ask for money.

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How about giving them something before they even ask for it?

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Isn't that the kind of fast God wants? What is a true fast?

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It says here, God defines the fast he desires, one that focuses on justice,

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compassion, acts of love.

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True fasting involves loosening the chains of injustice, feeding hungry people,

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and providing shelter to people experiencing homelessness.

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This passage shifts the focus of fasting from self-centeredness to outward acts

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of kindness and justice.

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Reflecting God's heart for others, It challenges us to use our fasting as a

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mean to affect positive change in the world around us.

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I just want to take a pause and think about that Selah.

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So as we are fasting, you know, usually as we're fasting, we can purge our house

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of some stuff that we ain't using.

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Come on now, sitting on the shelf, gathering dust and give it to someone who can actually use it.

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I don't know where you live, but where I live, it gets cold in the wintertime.

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How many coats can you actually wear at one time?

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How many cars can you actually drive at one time?

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I'm just saying, do we really need those nails? I'm just saying,

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just going on. Let's just keep preaching.

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All right. The third one is blessings of true fasting.

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Now go with me to Isaiah 58 verses 8 through 10. Like I said,

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I'm reading from the NLT version.

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I mean, I told you it came through me first and this is check, check, check.

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So I'm just saying some things that I did, not throwing any flame on anybody.

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But like I said, I'm just taking my devotionals.

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I'm putting them on a podcast so that I can listen to them.

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Like I said, eat my own dinner sometimes.

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And so that I can continue to grow with the Lord and hopefully you can continue to grow with me, man.

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So let's go to Isaiah 58, eight. I'm going to read four verses.

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This time is verses eight through 12.

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And I love it. It says, then look at that.

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Then, I love when God says then. It says, when you do that, don't give away your own stuff.

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When you begin to think about somebody else besides yourself,

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then, this is what happens, then your salvation will come like the dawn and

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your wounds will quickly heal.

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What wounds? What wounds?

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Your wounds. Your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward

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and And the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. What?

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Then when you call, the Lord will answer.

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Yes, I am here. He will quickly reply.

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Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Whose oppression?

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Your oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors.

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Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. He said that twice.

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Then your light will come out from the darkness and the darkness from around

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you will be as bright as noon.

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Verse 11, the Lord will guide you continually, continually giving you water

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when you are dry and restoring your strength.

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You will be like a well water garden, like an ever flowing spring.

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Verse 12, some of you will rebuild the desert ruins of your cities.

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Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls, a restorer of homes.

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See, a lot of times we think it's all about giving up the food.

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But God said, you can just have a little affliction of your soul.

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I got some things I need you to do. But then I got some things I'm going to do for you.

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Amen. It says, Isaiah 38, 12 says, it highlights these verses,

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promise that sincere fasting leads to healing, righteousness, and restoration.

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Then we fast with genuine hearts. We open ourselves to God's blessing and experience renewals.

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So when we start thinking about what we can't eat, when we can eat it,

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how much we can eat, we don't want to give away this.

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We want to keep that. We're missing the whole point of fasting.

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We miss we missing it you know we just be missing it you know so you get a chance

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read this again we're gonna keep going this is so good to me oh my god let's

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keep going god promises that our light will break forth like dawn whose light

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our light our healing will quickly appear who needs healing,

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we're holding on so tight trying to where are we going to eat keep all our clothes

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and all our stuff tight to us and we sick and we broke. Come on.

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Righteousness will go before us. Who is righteousness?

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Right standing with the Lord. Righteousness will go before us and the glory

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of the Lord will be our rear guard.

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Glory to God. These blessings come when our fasting aligns with God's purpose.

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Embracing the blessings of true fasting transforms our spiritual lives and positively

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impacts those around us.

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Aligning with God's heart brings profound changes.

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I don't know about you, but I feel like running around my room right now,

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but I'm kind of tied up on this podcast, but when I finish, I will, I will.

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Glory to God. So as we begin to connect our hearts to God, it's not about the food.

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We missing it. When we thinking about the food, when we trying to hold on to

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the stuff, let's keep going.

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The last point for today, point four is honoring the Sabbath, verses 13 and 14.

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I read it from the NLT, verse 13. It says, keep the Sabbath day holy.

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Don't pursue your own interests on that day. There we go.

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But enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord's holy day.

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Honor the Sabbath and everything you do on that day. And don't follow your own desires or talk idly.

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There goes that word again. Then, I like to do rewind, rewind.

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Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests. All the Lord says,

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give me just, can I get a day?

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But enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it as the light, as the Lord's holy day.

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On the Sabbath and everything you do on that day, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly.

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Then the Lord will be your delight.

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What? He will be our delight. And I will give great honor and satisfy you with

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the inheritance I promised to your ancestor, Jacob.

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I, the Lord, have spoken. It's like then.

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So he asked us to honor his day. Take a day of rest.

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Take a day just to honor him. I

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remember when I was young, there was like Sundays, everything was closed.

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So there was nothing you could do. My mom would let us do nothing on Sunday.

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Sunday was nothing that you Saturday, you clean, you got your clothes ready

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for school, but Sunday, I know you forgot to do all get your stuff ready for school.

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You had to wake up early on Monday to iron your clothes for school.

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But Sunday, the stores, it was a holy day period for everybody.

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Now they got everything's open. You couldn't buy nothing on Sunday.

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You might go get some gas, but rarely everything was done on a Saturday.

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Now everybody might honor different Sabbath days, different times,

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but I'm just telling my story when I was a young child.

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But now guess what? Everything is open.

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So it's like the world is on a 24-7 cycle and you can go get anything,

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anytime, whatever, whatever, whenever, whenever, whenever.

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And you're starting to look at people and people are tired because you need

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a day of rest. You need a day of rest.

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You need a day to just honor the Lord and just do nothing but worship the Lord.

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Just worship the Lord. Then he says, Then.

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I would do something. Whoa. So what is this thing about fasting?

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We keep thinking it's only about food. It does include absence of food, but we missed the point.

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It's devotion to God. What does that look like?

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This chapter concludes with a call to honor the Sabbath. Emphasizing true worship

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involves delighting in the Lord and turning away from self. This world is turning to self.

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But when God says when we turn to him and begin to delight in him,

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because he's already delighting us in other verses, right? He's delighting us all the time.

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He turned away from ourself and delight in him.

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And he says honoring the Sabbath is not just about rest, but about dedicating

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time to focus on God and his desires.

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It's a reminder to find joy in him and to live in obedience to his commands.

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Observing the Sabbath enriches our relationship with God and reinforces our

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commitment to living according to his will.

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It's just putting God back in the picture.

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My pastor mentioned like the God factor, putting God in the picture.

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We live this life, we work our 40 hours a week or more trying to make our bills

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meet, you know, make our bills, pay our bills when God says I'm the provider, right?

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We keep doing everything on our own when God says just devote to me and I'll be your provider.

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Keep the Sabbath. Take time and devote to me. Can we do that?

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And so as we close out, I want to just say these decrees over you.

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And when you get a chance, take out your favorite scriptures and go over Isaiah

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again and just get a different focus on God.

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Because this devotional series just started out as a 40-day devotional time with fasting.

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So the first 40 devotions, we'll begin to talk a lot about different things about fasting.

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But it's just to get it's really about getting closer

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closer to God but for this fix

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flicks la la for this affliction of the soul series

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I really want you to just take this time and really just to think about the

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things that you can do to get closer to God especially in this season especially

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in this timing what can you do to to be devoted to God,

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fasting is a great time to do that.

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But during your fasting, what can you do? What can you give to the poor?

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Can you let some people free from your anger, your attitude?

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What can you do to make it about God and not about you?

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All right, I'm just going to decree these things over you. This has been a great

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time. I think I might like these podcasts.

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Let's do this. It says, I believe my fasting, you can repeat after me.

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Let's do that as we close this out. Have five.

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I believe my fasting is a spiritual journey towards justice and compassion,

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reflecting God's love for others.

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I commit to pairing my fasting with acts of kindness and mercy,

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making it a true reflection of God's desires.

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I trust that my sincere fasting brings healing, righteousness,

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and restoration to my life and community.

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I trust to honor the Sabbath, finding joy and delight in the Lord as I rest in his presence.

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I am confident that aligning my heart with God's will through fasting opens

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the door of his blessing and divine guidance.

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Thank you. Thank you for joining me on this deep dive into Isaiah 58 as we explore

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the truth essence of fasting and how it It calls us to align our hearts with

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God's desire for justice, compassion, and devotions.

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As we strive to make our fasting meaningful and impactful, let's remember that

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true fasting brings blessings not only to us, but also to those around us.

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In our next episode, episode two, we'll delve into Romans 12,

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one through two, and discuss what it means to be a living sacrifice.

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Stay tuned as we continue our journey into the spiritual disciplines that draw us closer to God.

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Until next time, may you find your fasting journey be filled with grace,

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growth, and divine blessings.

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Once again, your host, Connie Morris. If you want more and get a copy of this

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devotional, these affliction of

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the soul, visit my website at diaryofablackwomanllc.com and download this,

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devotional, The Affliction of the Soul.

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Until next time we meet, God bless you and have a great day.