The Fast
My wife and I married on 16 Sept. 1972. We were students at Utah State University and
optimistic for what lay ahead in our future.
In the spring of 1974, I graduated and took a summer job with an engineering
firm in Utah County. I was all set with
research and funding to go back to graduate school in the fall. I never went back except as a guest lecturer
each year during the last years before I retired from Sunrise Engineering. I found the work that summer interesting and
demanding with exposure to a wonderful variety of engineering which really
established personal successful principles for my career. In 1975, we bought our first house in
Pleasant Grove, Utah.
We had been and still felt like starving students. The house cost about $28,000 and today would
probably be worth $180,000. Times have
changed, but in 1976 there was a depressed housing market, so we found a way to
buy the house with nothing down. The house
payments, however, were a tremendous financial burden. We budgeted and stretched to meet our cash
flow needs each month. The refrigerator
we were using was an ancient thing that my wife’s parents had used forever and
had given to us. There was only one door
that opened to the shelves inside and located at the top of the shelves was a
small ice box. Food and milk spoiled
quickly inside that refrigerator and the ice box every few weeks would be
completely enclosed in condensate ice needing manual thawing, chipping and
removal.
We decided to buy a new refrigerator/freezer. You need to understand, we still had bed
sheets hanging in the windows for curtains and I am confident our neighbors
thought the hillbillies had moved to town.
We visited the appliance store and picked out an elite, 22 cu. ft.
refrigerator with: two doors, convenient pull-out two-tier bottom freezer,
full-width door bins and pantry drawer, spacious, tight sealing, humidity
control with strategically placed vents to balance cool air throughout the
entire refrigerator and automatic freezer defrost. It would cost $1,100 as I
recall. For the biggest part of the year
we sacrificed and saved, and finally, we had the money for the purchase.
In those days the church required local members to pay 30%
of the cost of a new building. A new Stake Center was being built in our stake so
the bishopric came by and asked for a donation from us for our share of the 30%
stake building project. You guessed it,
our quota was $1,100. We paid it, but
each time we went to the new Stake Center we walked around to the kitchen to
look at our 22 cu. ft. refrigerator/freezer.
Moroni stated if a man offers a gift and gives it grudgingly, “…it
profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such…it is the same as he had
retained the gift.” (Mor. 7: 6-9) I had some repenting to do.
I learned a lesson about church donations then, and I want
to specifically write about the fast and fast offerings. Isaiah taught with clarity about the
fast. The blessings mentioned are
symbolic using words such as: bands, burdens, oppressed, yoke, thy light, thy
drought, garden, waste places, restorer, etc.
You should apply what is written to your specific life circumstances, and
realize the verses apply to you:
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?
8 ¶Then
shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall
spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of
the Lord shall be thy rearward.
9 Then
shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and
he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of
thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou
draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then
shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as
the noonday:
11 And
the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul
in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they
that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt
raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The
repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (Isiah 58: 6-12)
These amazing blessings come to you and are in addition to
the blessings which are the purpose for your fast. It makes no sense to let your fasting be
sloppy or to slide. You should have a
purpose for your fast, focus your prayers during fasting for that purpose and
the fast offering (verse 7 above) is an important part of the fast, including full
time missionaries. The fast consists of
24 hours without food or drink, modified as needed for health reasons, and
donating at least the cost of the 2 meals you missed as a fast offering to the
church. But, be generous with the
donation. Perhaps, when you get
established, you can actually drive a little less fancy car or conserve in some
other way so you can be even more generous with your fast offering.
The fast offering is the Lord’s way to provide for the poor
and needy. It is the furthest thing from
pathetic programs of governments.
Governments confiscate by force wealth from productive people against
their will, redistribute the money to the government’s voting block, creating
hopelessness and more dependency on the government. The church welfare system uses the fast
offering to lift people to be self-reliant and to return to the work force when
possible, plus it enriches the lives of those who voluntarily give. It is a safe and effective method to give to
the poor.
As I read the scriptures, providing for the poor and needy
is one of the top requirements in this life.
In your baptismal covenant you agree to comfort those who stand in need
of comfort. (Mos. 18:9) You must impart of your substance of your own
free will to every needy naked soul. (Mos. 18:28) God created all that we have so
your substance is His anyway and we are all after all unprofitable
servants. (Mosiah 2: 21-25) Succor those who stand in need, do not say
the poor brought it on themselves, and imparting your substance provides
retaining a remission of your sins.
(Mosiah 4: 21-26) After ye have
done all things, if you turn away the needy, it availeth you nothing. (Alma 34:
17-28) In the last days men will love
money and substance more than the poor, needy and sick. Riches will canker your soul and poor men are
to labor with their own hands. (DC 56:
16-17)
The opportunity to help the poor is not going away. Christ said, “For ye have the poor always
with you…” (Matt. 26: 6-11)
The fast is an opportunity for true worship, for special
blessings, sanctification of your soul and guidance along the path leading to
salvation.
President Robinson
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