In this week’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount we’ve looked at what it looks like to be and remain ‘salty’. The three acts of piety that Jesus used to describe this is giving to the needy, prayer and fasting. It matters more why we do these acts and not what we do. If we hope to perform or to impress God or people or hope for selfish or material gain – we are doing them with the wrong motivations. We should enjoy the freedom of knowing and delighting in God as Father, and let our lives reflect and express his love and abundance. Today as you reflect on this, would you meditate on Isaiah 58:6-11 and God’s wonderful promises:
6 “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?
7 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?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 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,
10 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.
11 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.
Petrina Rangiawha
