True Fasting

While corporately fasting with our church I shared with my family something Charles Stanley said concerning fasting, "If you are at a friends house while in the middle of a fast and they unexpectedly invite you to share a meal, do not say 'No, I am fasting' as this brings attention to yourself, rather quietly break your fast, accept their generosity, and then start your fast again the next day"

I say this for a reason, during our fast a co-worker of my wife that she has been trying reach out to with the Gospel message, invited her to have lunch. My wife said, "My first thought was to say no, but then I remembered the story you shared and I graciously accepted her invitation" 

I ask, would it have been better to say no and continue to fast, or in the eyes of God was it better to accept and have an opportunity to witness Jesus?

 James 2:15-17 tells us, "Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead"

You see, the women that invited my wife to lunch, is both hungry and naked, she just doesn't know it.

 I was very proud of my wife as she is living out Isaiah 58: 6-11 "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? 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 them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you,and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

 We should not be so caught up in our 'act' of fasting or religiosity that we forget to do good.