If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NKJV.

How do old things pass away? Hurts that cut deep, pain that keeps resurfacing? Ways of thinking and doing that keep causing pain and hurt. We come to Creator God – Father…Son…Spirit. In showing us His way, hurts so deeply cut become healed as we look to Him for understanding. The old things don’t bring understanding and need to pass away. We need to make room for new understanding and a different way of thinking of ourselves and one another. Only God can guide us to live by faith in the Son of God. And in our chapter, Isaiah 58, He says through Isaiah, Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to My people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek Me out; they seem eager to know My ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask Me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. v. 1-2. As if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. A wake-up call. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and You have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have noticed?” v. 3. Do we think God doesn’t notice or care? Do we care? Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect to be heard on high…Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I. v. 3-4, 6-9. We want to go our own way. Nations are no different. How is that going for us? If you do away with the yoke of oppression, and with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail…If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. v. 9-11, 13-14.

God cares for each one of us. Do we think He doesn’t care when we hurt one another? The Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us…cares.