“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ (The Message).

Would you like to know a key to being heard in prayer? It concerns how we treat people. It’s not that we can earn answers to prayer, but we need to understand that unrepented sin can form a blockage.

”If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened…” (Ps.66:18).

When we boil it all down, I believe discipleship is about loving God and loving people: loving God first and foremost, but this overflows into a life of love for all people – including our own families. (We don’t have to travel far to run into people!).

Somebody said the secret of joy is:

Jesus first

Others next

Yourself last.

How is this life of service to others a ”kind of fast”? Well, whenever we put others before ourselves, is it not a form of self-denial? Going without food for a time in order to pray is one expression of denying self; serving people is another form.

”Then when you pray, God will answer.    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ ‘