Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled A Cry for Help was written by Marvin Williams. David Willis had been upstairs in Waterstone's bookshop when he came downstairs and found the lights were turned off

and the doors locked. He was trapped inside the store. Not knowing what else to do, he turned to

Twitter and tweeted, Hi, at Waterstones, I've been locked inside of your Trafalgar Square bookstore

for two hours now. Please let me out. Not too long

after his tweet, he was rescued. It's good to have a way to get help when we're in trouble.

Isaiah said, there's someone who will answer our cries when we're trapped in a problem of our own making. The prophet wrote that

God had charged his people with practicing their religious devotion irresponsibly. They were going

through the motions of religion, but masking their oppression of the poor with empty and self-serving

rituals. This didn't win divine

favor. God hid his eyes from them and didn't answer their prayers. He told them to repent and

display outward acts of caring for others. If they did that, he told them, you will call and the

Lord will answer. You will cry for help and he will say,

Here am I, if you do away with the yoke of oppression with the pointing finger and malicious talk.

Let's get close to the poor, saying to them, I am here. For God hears our cries for help and says to us, I am here.

Our scripture reading today is from Isaiah chapter 58, verses 1 through 9.

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. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

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