Every first Sunday, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fast from food and water for 2 meals. Then they donate the money that would have bought those meals to feed someone else in need. These are Fast Offerings.
Fasting is a spiritual exercise meant to bring us closer to God and petition Him for special blessings. But it is also a physical sacrifice where we serve our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, by offering literal, edible, much-needed food.
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isaiah 58:6-7
Fasting seems extra weighty today. Setting aside the should-haves, and could-haves, and the who is to blame for what, the reality is there are now tens of millions of Americans who have lost a source of food this month. How can we show up to help? How can we “love one another” as Jesus commanded us to?
I’m not going to tell anyone else exactly how they should help or what is the best way to give, because everyone’s situation—whether giver or receiver—is unique. But please don’t turn a blind eye.
King Benjamin, an ancient prophet who testified of the coming of Jesus Christ, taught that we are all beggars before God. He said that it is our duty to “succor those that stand in need of your succor” and that we must not “suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.” (Mosiah 4:16).
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
Mosiah 4:17-18
“Are we not all beggars?” he asks (Mosiah 4:19). Do we not all depend upon the same God for all that we have? For food and clothing and riches of every kind?
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
26 …for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.
27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.
Mosiah 4:21, 26-27
This is how Jesus commands us to live, with love and generosity, seeking to increase goodness and light in a too often dark world. Ask yourself, or better yet ask God, what you can do “in wisdom and order” to offer relief to someone else today?
Our Advocate 