Fasting and Prayer, Part 5

Next we come to some more conditions to the blessings. "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul...." When we fast we should treat others well. We shouldn't burden them down or deride them and point fingers or be lifted up in pride and vanity. We need to share of our substance with the needy and hungry. We need to "satisfy the afflicted soul" physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

If we meet these conditions, we are promised: "Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday." God is Light. The Savior is the Light of the World. We, too, can be filled with this light. The Savior taught, "If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him" (John 11:9-10). When we fast and help others, we walk in daylight, in the light of the Son. With this light, with the light that surely will be inside us as we follow the Savior, we can help guide others.

Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save. [Hymns, 1985, no. 335]

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually." He will be there as a pillar of fire or a cloud of shadow, just as He was for the children of Israel in the wilderness. The Lord will be our Liahona, our compass pointing the way to the Promised Land.