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All My Problems Are Caused by My Sins |
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LIFE GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE
Wednesday Night, September 20, 2006
“All My Problems Are Caused By My Sins”
5 Minutes - Welcome / Prayer
5 Minutes - OPEN
Take a minute and identify some people that you know tonight who are suffering with what seems to be something monumental.
Now closer to home. Share with the group or at least think in private for a minute about at least one struggle or stressor that you’ve dealt with in your life this week.
Notice how we are prone to identify our major struggles to be health or relational. When time is allowed for prayer requests, what most frequently ends up on our prayer list when we meet?
What can we intentionally do to broaden the scope of our prayer requests that we share with one another?
15 Minutes - DIG
Job said, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).
Surrounding this subject comes some of the most challenging questions that really challenge the faith of some:
* Why is God silent in the midst of our suffering?
* Why does God seem not to hear or answer my prayers during times of great distress?
* Why does the world seem so unfair when God is sovereign and could make it fair if He chose to do such?
If you haven’t already, sooner or later someone will ask you to respond to these questions. All of us would do well to do better prepare ourselves to respond to these questions through further study and prayer. In doing so, I’m confident our faith will be deepened and some of our expectations adjusted.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We should expect to experience “trouble,” “pressure,” and “hardships” in this cosmic struggle between good and evil. Consider the words in Acts 14:21-23 and particularly notice that Paul and Barnabas went from place to place “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said.
In what ways does our Christian faith enable us to deal with the hardships and losses that we experience in a different way?
Read 1 Peter 4:12-16.
What is the significance of Peter’s instruction that we suffer “as a Christian?” Is there a proper way that a Christian deals with suffering?
Beyond that, Peter says later in this same chapter in verse 19, ‘So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
In what ways have the hardships and losses that you’ve endured promoted a greater humility and deeper reliance on God? What have you learned about God as you depended on Him in the midst of suffering?
Compare and contrast Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:2-5.
15 Minutes - REFLECT
How have you learned to survive the losses of life - - the major disappointments, the broken promises, the crushed dreams that often puzzle, paralyze, and dishearten us?
What comfort do you derive from the teaching of scripture that for a Christian these losses will not have the last word?
What can we do in this life of this church to allow for the power of testimony to profoundly speak to this body as Christians stand on broken, shattered ground and yet stand with a deeper faith and appreciation of God and as a powerful witness for Christ?
5 Minutes - CLOSING PRAYER
In closing, read 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18.
Submit all of these matters to your Heavenly Father.
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