Setting aside the physical in order to gain something more important in the spiritual is a reset button.

Jesus expects me to fast so that I can reset with Him.

Fasting - deliberate abstinence from some form of physical gratification for a period of time to achieve a spiritual goal.

Fasting humbles me before God.

Fasting focuses me on God.

Fasting brings results.

START TALKING

When have you set aside one thing in order to get something more important? When have you given up something you want for something you want even more?

START THINKING

Read Matthew 4:4. When Jesus was fasting, these were His words to Satan when Satan tried to get Jesus to stop fasting. What does this teach us about fasting? What does it teach us about how fasting focuses us on God?

Read Isaiah 58:3-6. What do these verses teach us about the difference between just not eating versus fasting? What does this teach us about the importance of the motivation we have when we fast?

START SHARING

Read Matthew 6:16-18. Jesus says, "When you fast..." twice in this passage. If He expects us to fast, why do most of us never do it? Is it because we've never been taught or it's too hard or something else? Why do you not think about fasting more often?

If you have fasted, share about what you deliberately gave us in the physical in order to gain something more important in the spiritual. How did it humble you before God? How did it focus you on Him?

Read James 4:10 in three different translations. Humility has been defined as "not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less." How do you think fasting accomplishes this?

Read Hebrews 12:2. How do you think fasting will help you focus on Jesus more?

START DOING

Throughout the Bible, sometimes fasting was a way to take prayer to the next level and see God answer while other times it was an act of deeper worship and prayer simply to know God better. Read each of the passages below and identify the specific reason someone fasted or was told to fast and what purpose it accomplished:

Joel 2:12
Acts 14:43
Nehemiah 1:1-4
Ezra 8:21-23
Luke 2:36-37

Next week - the week before Easter - our church has been called to a week of prayer. What is something in the physical that you will deliberately give up in order to gain something more important in the spiritual? What will you intentionally do to allow this to humble you and focus you rather than simply not eat and go through the motions?

How can you use this time of fasting to focus you on your mission as a disciple maker and multiplier? How can you use this time to ask God to use you to make a difference in the lives of those around you?

START PRAYING

Each person in the microchurch share what you will fast and what you hope God will reveal to you throughout that experience. Then pray for each other to experience Jesus on a deeper level like never before.