January 5th, 2022
I don’t know about you, but the post-Christmas season is one of the hardest times of the year for me to be a productive human being. We’ve been in a Holiday Haze for about six weeks, may have had some time off work, and are now expected to go back to normal and act like we aren’t in sugar comas. Not an easy feat! This is truly one of the reasons I love the January fast! If you don’t know, many churches, ours included, do a corporate fast at the beginning of the year as a way to reset and focus for the year to come. For this reason, we will be talking about fasting for the next few weeks!
There are a lot of different opinions and theologies about fasting. There are also many different types of fasts you can do! However, there is one thing that is not up for debate: Jesus expected us to fast. He said in Matthew 6:16, “When you fast,” not “if you fast,” leaving us with the understanding that as Christians, fasting is nonnegotiable and just like with anything God asks us to do, it’s for our good! Strictly from a scientific perspective, we now know that there are physical benefits to fasting, but even more than that, there are spiritual blessings that come along with fasting. In Isaiah 58, one of the most significant chapters on fasting in the Bible, God says:
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
…Then shall your light break forth like the dawn…”
Isaiah 58:6-8
In this chapter, the LORD rebuked His people for wrong fasting and instructed them on how to fast correctly. He then goes on to give promises we can expect when we fast in accordance with His word. For right now, I want to talk about just one of them. God said, as we see above, that when you fast, “your light shall break forth like the dawn” (Is. 58:8).
Light is something mentioned a great deal in the Scripture. The important thing to realize here is that the light God is talking about is not a natural light. There is a supernatural, spiritual light that has nothing to do with the sun. On the first day of creation, God said “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:4). However, it wasn’t until the fourth day that the sun and the moon were created! What was this light He created on the first day? Theologians have many theories on the subject and I’m not a theologian, but what we do know is that throughout the Bible there is a theme of supernatural light. Moses’ face shined so brightly after being in God’s glory that the people couldn’t look at his face (Ex. 34:29). The Word of God is called light countless times in the old testament. One example of this is Psalms 119:105 which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” We see the theme of supernatural light most fully and profoundly in Jesus Christ himself. John 1:1-4 says,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus himself is the living word and the light of the world and that light is the life of men. When we walk with God, that same light comes to dwell in us! We become a lamp in a dark world (Matt. 5:14-16). Ephesians 5:8-9 says, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Read that again. It doesn’t say you have light. It says you are light. Jesus was the light of the world when He walked the earth, but He is at the right hand of the Father now. When we become sons and daughters of light, we ourselves become the lamp of Jesus to those who are in darkness. One of my favorite Scriptures about this is, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corin. 4:6). Just as God said “Let there be light” to a world void of life, He sent His Son and said “let there be light” to all of mankind. When we choose to receive that light, we begin to shine with life (John 8:12)!
The other aspect of the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that I love is the last part that says, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When John was on the isle of Patmos, he saw Jesus and he gives us the most powerful pictures of Christ glorified that we have in Scripture. Revelation 1:17-18 says “…His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” Jesus’ face shines as brightly as the sun and it’s the knowledge of that glory, in His face, that fills our life with light!
We see from all of this that we are light to those in darkness, “among whom [we] shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). The thing about lights, though, is that they aren’t all the same. Lights can be bright or dim, but the brighter a light is, the further it reaches and the more darkness it expels! Moses’ face shined after he’d been in the glory of God, but it wore off after he had been out of God’s glory for a time. The light in us is the same way. It’s not something we can kindle in ourselves. It’s the light of Jesus in us, and it burns brighter the closer we are to the source of our light. Him.
One of the ways we fuel the light of God in our hearts is by seeking His face through prayer and fasting. We have the promise of His word that when we fast in accordance with His purpose, our light will “break forth like the dawn” (Is. 58:8). We know from the Scripture that, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day” (Prov. 4:18). God’s desire is for us to continually burn brighter and brighter, seeing darkness flee and His kingdom expand. He is light and hope and His truth obliterates every bit of darkness that tries to come into our lives. As we fast over the next few weeks, let’s grab ahold of this promise. Let’s fast and seek the face of God like we never have before, knowing that as we do, our light will break forth like the light of the dawn!
There are a lot of different opinions and theologies about fasting. There are also many different types of fasts you can do! However, there is one thing that is not up for debate: Jesus expected us to fast. He said in Matthew 6:16, “When you fast,” not “if you fast,” leaving us with the understanding that as Christians, fasting is nonnegotiable and just like with anything God asks us to do, it’s for our good! Strictly from a scientific perspective, we now know that there are physical benefits to fasting, but even more than that, there are spiritual blessings that come along with fasting. In Isaiah 58, one of the most significant chapters on fasting in the Bible, God says:
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
…Then shall your light break forth like the dawn…”
Isaiah 58:6-8
In this chapter, the LORD rebuked His people for wrong fasting and instructed them on how to fast correctly. He then goes on to give promises we can expect when we fast in accordance with His word. For right now, I want to talk about just one of them. God said, as we see above, that when you fast, “your light shall break forth like the dawn” (Is. 58:8).
Light is something mentioned a great deal in the Scripture. The important thing to realize here is that the light God is talking about is not a natural light. There is a supernatural, spiritual light that has nothing to do with the sun. On the first day of creation, God said “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:4). However, it wasn’t until the fourth day that the sun and the moon were created! What was this light He created on the first day? Theologians have many theories on the subject and I’m not a theologian, but what we do know is that throughout the Bible there is a theme of supernatural light. Moses’ face shined so brightly after being in God’s glory that the people couldn’t look at his face (Ex. 34:29). The Word of God is called light countless times in the old testament. One example of this is Psalms 119:105 which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” We see the theme of supernatural light most fully and profoundly in Jesus Christ himself. John 1:1-4 says,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus himself is the living word and the light of the world and that light is the life of men. When we walk with God, that same light comes to dwell in us! We become a lamp in a dark world (Matt. 5:14-16). Ephesians 5:8-9 says, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Read that again. It doesn’t say you have light. It says you are light. Jesus was the light of the world when He walked the earth, but He is at the right hand of the Father now. When we become sons and daughters of light, we ourselves become the lamp of Jesus to those who are in darkness. One of my favorite Scriptures about this is, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corin. 4:6). Just as God said “Let there be light” to a world void of life, He sent His Son and said “let there be light” to all of mankind. When we choose to receive that light, we begin to shine with life (John 8:12)!
The other aspect of the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that I love is the last part that says, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When John was on the isle of Patmos, he saw Jesus and he gives us the most powerful pictures of Christ glorified that we have in Scripture. Revelation 1:17-18 says “…His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” Jesus’ face shines as brightly as the sun and it’s the knowledge of that glory, in His face, that fills our life with light!
We see from all of this that we are light to those in darkness, “among whom [we] shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). The thing about lights, though, is that they aren’t all the same. Lights can be bright or dim, but the brighter a light is, the further it reaches and the more darkness it expels! Moses’ face shined after he’d been in the glory of God, but it wore off after he had been out of God’s glory for a time. The light in us is the same way. It’s not something we can kindle in ourselves. It’s the light of Jesus in us, and it burns brighter the closer we are to the source of our light. Him.
One of the ways we fuel the light of God in our hearts is by seeking His face through prayer and fasting. We have the promise of His word that when we fast in accordance with His purpose, our light will “break forth like the dawn” (Is. 58:8). We know from the Scripture that, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day” (Prov. 4:18). God’s desire is for us to continually burn brighter and brighter, seeing darkness flee and His kingdom expand. He is light and hope and His truth obliterates every bit of darkness that tries to come into our lives. As we fast over the next few weeks, let’s grab ahold of this promise. Let’s fast and seek the face of God like we never have before, knowing that as we do, our light will break forth like the light of the dawn!
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