Read Matthew Chapter 6:16-34
1. What does Jesus teach them about fasting in Matthew 6:16–18?
2. What do you learn about fasts and fasting from the following passages?
2 Samuel 12:20-22
Ezra 8:21-22
Esther 4:16
Psalm 69:9-11
3. Read Isaiah chapter 58. This passage reveals a great deal about what God thinks about fasts, how they should be conducted, and what they should be about.
a. What does God accuse Israel of doing on their days of fast in Isaiah 58:3?
b. What motives does God accuse Israel of having in their fasts in Isaiah 58:4?
c. What does God say about the fast He has chosen in the following verses?
Isaiah 58:6
Isaiah 58:7
d. What does God promise will be the result of such fasting in Isaiah 58:8-9?
e. Record His additional conditions in the following verses:
Isaiah 58:9
Isaiah 58:10
Isaiah 58:13
f. Record His additional promises in the following verses:
Isaiah 58:11
Isaiah 58:12
Isaiah 58:14
Going Deeper: For more on Fasting, refer to Daniel 9:2-4 and Joel 2:12-32
4. What does Jesus teach them in Matthew 6:19-34?
5. What further insight into Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:19-34 do you gain from the following verses?
Proverbs 11:4
Proverbs 12:25
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Luke 10:40-42
Luke 12:22-34
Philippians 4:6-7
6. Copy Matthew 6:21. Meditate on this. Record your thoughts and impressions.
7. What do you learn from the following passages about loving God first?
Exodus 20:1-11
Deuteronomy 4:23-24
Deuteronomy 6:4
Going deeper: What did the idiomatic expression “eye is good” or “eye is bad” mean in first century Jewish society?
8. What do you learn about the light and darkness within from the following passages?
Isaiah 5:20
John 3:18-20
9. What application regarding prayer in your own life can you make from this chapter?
10. How can you apply Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness to your own life?
11. Have you been storing up treasures somewhere other than heaven? How does this chapter help you to reconsider that practice?
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