Week 6: Lifestyle Changes (Exercise)

DAY 1

Read Malachi 3:1-4

  • Who does God say is coming soon?  

  • What will happen when he comes (process and results)?

  • The purification process involves extreme temperatures that separate impurities from molten metal.  When have you personally experienced this purification process in your life?  

DAY 2

Read Malachi 3:3-5

  • What crimes are listed here?  

  • How does each action hurt other people?

  • We are often complicit in acts of injustice.  We might buy products made in sweatshops or sold in retail stores that fail to pay their employees a living wage.  We say nothing when our government enacts policies that target specific groups of people.  Or we witness unjust interactions between people in our communities but hesitate to speak up in defense of the vulnerable.  Which of these charges best applies to you?

DAY 3

Read Malachi 3:6-12

  • What does God promise if the people will bring the whole tithe into the storehouses?  

  • How is tithing a trust issue?

  • Consider your current financial giving to God’s work.  Does the level of your giving provide the opportunity for God to pour out His blessing?  If not, what step could you take in that direction?

Day 4

Read Malachi 3:13-15

  • What do the people say about serving God?

  • Why might God call these statements arrogant?

  • How could you relate these statements to the situation we see in our world today?

Day 5

Read Malachi 16-18

  • What was the scroll of remembrance?

  • What behavior distinguished the faithful remnant from other people living at the time?

  • God promises that people will once again see God make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked.  But honestly, aren’t we all a little bit of both on any given day.  Thinking over the past 24 hours of your life, in what way(s) did you ‘live rightly?’  In what way(s) did you find yourself giving in to wickedness?

DAY 6

Read Malachi 4:1-6

  • What does God promise for those who revere His name?

  • What will the ‘prophet Elijah’ come to do?

  • God says, “Remember the law of my servant Moses…”  In Mark 12:30-31, Jesus summarizes the Law into two basic commands, love God and love neighbor.  In what way are these two commandments intertwined?  In other words, how does loving God require loving your neighbor?

DAY 7

Review The Week

  • What stands out the most to you?  Why?

  • What do you most need from God right now?

  • Keeping a record of our prayers is a good way to guard against forgetting how God has worked in our life in the past or missing the answered prayers of our present.  Briefly summarize your prayers from this week.