Align your heart and check your motivation.

READ THE WORDS. Isaiah 58. Warning and promise. Protection and Hope. Enlightenment of true worship—what we crave! But often confuse + misinterpret to preserve our comfort.
Had to share this.
Was reading in Isaiah preparing for an upcoming speaking engagement and Isaiah 58 was halting and beautiful to read. It felt important to share as we are all walking into the new year, discussing our resolutions and rhythms—asking God what He wants us to let go of and what we must cultivate.
And while sooooo many of these things are good, I was arrested by the language in scripture:
The people respond, ‘We have fasted before You’, they say. ‘Why aren’t You impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’
‘I will tell you why!’ I respond.
‘It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves…what good is fasting if you keep on fighting and quarreling!”
He goes on to tell them what DOES please His heart. It sounds like this: ACTION with a heart posture of HUMILITY.
Free
Lighten
Let
Share
Give
Remove
Stop
Feed
Help
Keep
Enjoy
Honor

This is not to say that the new things we are doing and the bad habits/thought patterns/particulars we are taking away are wrong.
I just wonder…how much of all our doing is to please ourselves?
Or what NEAR us—IN us—what of our CURRENT is He calling us to and instead, we create distraction (even of good things) with fasting what we PREFER?

Just felt important…our heart posture. Releasing anything or anyone from being wrongly imprisoned in our hearts or minds so that love can be let loose.
Helping.

Isaiah 58:11 tells us that when we do, we will be like a well-watered spring—strength restored, fully hydrated, guided in every moment in spaces that wash our souls with Heavenly streams of grace + hope.

So as you pray and prepare and plan—as you take on and let go—may you ask, “Is this pleasing to You, Father?”

If I have learned anything, it is that aligning our hearts and checking our motivation is the necessary work of digging in the soul. It is the thing that provides the wisdom we are after, the courage to tend to the hard stuff, the strength to endure, and the JOY to live a meaningful life.