This week you're going to look at Matthew 6:1 - 7:12 where Jesus redefines what it is to be practicing our spirituality.
Jesus is redefining our piety (AKA our spiritual lives put into practice or "our outside life match our inside life") and urges us to do this with simplicity, in secrecy for the audience of just God, and to be secure and grounded in God.
ENGAGE
Engage in the discipline of fasting. Jesus teaches on the discipline of fasting as one of the outworkings of our spiritual life. "Fasting" is not black-mailing God on a hunger-strike - it's intentionally choosing to strip away our allegiances to other gods in our life by saying "No!" to them for a period of time so we learn not to let them rule us.
Here's some ways you could fast this week:
- choose not to eat for a day, replacing each meal time with times of prayer
- delete your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter apps off your phone for the week and load the "Pray-As-You-Go" app to use in their place
- choose to say "no" to a social gathering this week (e.g. Friday night drinks or a certain coffee date of the week) and stay in quietly at home to engage in solitude for the evening