Subject: The Benefits of Fasting Done God's Way

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58: 1 - 12

Memory Verse: Isaiah 58: 6

Note: Biblical fasting is the act of abstaining from food and water for a specific period of time to seek God's divine favour.

1. How did God through Isaiah rebuke His people for ‘the show’ they put on in the name of fasting? Isaiah 58: 1 - 5.

2. How did God show disdain for the type of fasting they were engaged in? Zechariah 7: 1 - 7

3. Describe the type of fasting that God accepts? Isaiah 58: 6 - 7

4. After fasting God's way, what deliverance came to the Jews at a critical period of their history? Esther 4: 15 - 16, 5: 1 - 3, 9: 1 - 5

5. When faced with the judgement of God, how was Nineveh spared? Jonah 3: 3 - 10; and what did fasting do for Ezra and the exiles returning to Jerusalem? Ezra 8: 21 – 23

6. When motives and attitude are right, what benefits will be experienced? Isaiah 58: 8 – 12