Do You Need Strength?

“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?” (Isaiah 58:6). God is saying that the fast he chooses starts in our own hearts. We are to position ourselves to receive something supernatural from God — freedom from oppression and bondage of every kind.

When believers enter into a time of fasting, they should properly prepare their hearts to receive God’s supernatural intervention. One of the most important spiritual characteristics is humility: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).

“A contrite and lowly spirit” — this is the heart of one who seeks after God, who holds lightly the things of the world, and presses on to know the heavenly Father in a deep way. Our hearts are revived when we stay humble before the Lord. He breathes into us power and life, spiritual vitality, refreshing, renewing, strength in spirit. “They who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Do you need strength? Do you need to have God move in power in your life as he has never moved before? If you come to God with an angry spirit, demanding things of him, he does not hear your voice. “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?” (Isaiah 58:3). But if you come to him with a broken heart and a spirit of true humility, he says to you, “I see that you are contrite in spirit and I am here to revive your heart.”