Answering Isaiah

Answering Isaiah

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: . . . 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.

— Isaiah 58:6 – 7

Diana is a “working” homeless person. She puts in hours at a local fast-food restaurant and showers every couple of days at a nearby Methodist church. Sometimes with her earnings, Diana is able to get a good night’s sleep at a Motel 6. She is sixty-two years old and starts each day with a “Good morning, God!” then tends to her cat, Shadow. She has found a safe sleeping place near a hardware store in the San Fernando Valley. She lost her home years ago but is hoping to find a permanent place to live.

Cathy, who works at our office, met Diana several months ago when she stopped by the fast-food restaurant. She was impressed with the woman’s upbeat attitude. When she learned Diana was homeless, Cathy and her husband decided to help — they have since found her a room to rent. It’s one modern-day example of how Christians are not only responding to God’s plea in Isaiah 58 but are salting their communities with the preserving influence of the gospel. After all, people like Diana hold a special place in God’s heart (Matthew 25:35).

People like Cathy have a special place in God’s heart too. As they help someone like Diana, Isaiah 58:9 – 11 assures that “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 . . . 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.”

Father God, today I will encounter all sorts of people in my community. Open my eyes to their needs and show me how to make a difference.