“Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?”

How can we be worthy of these blessings when there are more poor people in the world than ever before?

I like the implications of the statement that we are to break off every yolk. What we should do when dealing with people is to seek to free them from burdens that oppress them temporally or spiritually.

When we offer succor to anyone, the Savior feels it as if we reached out to succor Him.

That is a comforting thought.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

Part of the reason the righteous question the Lord on this point is that they had helped people so frequently that it was their nature and they no longer thought on the help they were continually offering.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen?

The “fast” that we choose is the particular way that we choose to contribute to the building of the kingdom of God.

Other storms and tragedies will come across the world to people the Lord loves and whose sorrows He feels. Part of your fast offering and mine this month will be used to help someone, somewhere, whose relief the Lord will feel as if it were His own.

Your fast offering will do more than help feed and clothe bodies. It will heal and change hearts. The fruit of a free-will offering may be the desire in the heart of the recipient to reach out to others in need. That happens across the world.

He held the scriptures in his “hand and gently turned the pages. As [he did, he found a] yellow copy of a tithing donation slip. [He] could see that, in a country where [a dollar was worth its] weight in gold, Abie Turay had paid one dollar as her tithing, one dollar to the missionary fund, and one dollar as a fast offering for those who, in her words, were ‘truly poor.’”

She had given 30% of her income in donations. What faith!!

The brief time we fast every month and the small amount we offer for the poor may give us only a small part of the change in our natures to have no more desire to do evil.

Receiving a small part of that change over and over will eventually make the full change in our nature secure.