Healing?

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 him, 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. (Isaiah 58:6-8)


Sometimes we are so preoccupied with "formal religion" -- and keeping so busy in church activities -- that we neglect His righteous commands that we serve individuals -- they are all around us -- recognizing and meeting their physical and emotional and spiritual needs.

What I notice here in these verses is that our own healing is linked to serving others!

Paul wrote, "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35).

Is this what we are taught? Not usually. We are told to take care of ourselves first, and then help others.

We seem most concerned about our own healing - our own inner pain and hurt - and forget that we are surrounded by a world of sad, grieving, hopeless fellow human beings.

But I am weak right now - I can't reach out and help someone else...I need someone to help me carry my burden, to listen to me, to understand me...

But Paul tells us to "carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

What is the 'law of Christ'? To love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Each of us is called upon the help others, not matter how wounded we might be.

To set the oppressed free.

And so our own wounded hearts and lives will be healed.

And so your healing will quickly appear.