Just me again! Here are this week's discussion and personal application questions. A couple of the discussion ones feel a little "Sunday schoolish" to me in terms of having fairly obvious, easy answers. If you feel the same, either pick a different question to reflect on or try to take it in a deeper direction than it seems to require. I'm not too worried about depth of conversation with this group. Thanks for all the comments so far. It's great to be in conversation with you all again. Both the accountability and the sounding board are so beneficial for me. I hope the same is true for you!
Discussion Questions:
- How does the truth that God has forgiven our sin free us to honestly and humbly face our sin?
- What hinders us from recognizing our sin? Why do we allow sin to "reign" in our lives? (See Romans 6:12.)
- How might our lives change if we consistently pray about subtle sins and ask for the Holy Spirit's help each time we encounter situations that might trigger these sins?
- Why do we need to "preach the gospel to ourselves," to read biblical assurances of God's forgiveness?
- How should Jesus' work (the forgiveness his death and resurrection accomplished) motivate us to deal with our sin?
Personal Application:
- In chapters 4-6, which insights did you particularly appreciate and why?
- If you trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord, do you find it easy or difficult to comprehend God's forgiveness and infinite love for you? Why?
- If you're a follower of Christ, God has completely forgiven your sin and will work with you to put to death expressions of sin in your life--including the "respectable" ones. What does this mean to you personally?
Action Steps:
- Together, let's invite God to give each of us a new heart that longs to be in intimate relationship with Him--and to promptly confess our sins as His Spirit makes us aware of them.
- Write out 1 John 1:9 from your favorite translation of the Bible. Spend the next week working to memorize it and reflecting on the promise it holds.
Next week: Chapters 7 & 10
3 comments:
It seems everyone is facing a little difficulty getting to the blog this week! Life is just so busy, isn't it? I constantly struggle to find any sort of routine being in the Word or spending significant time in prayer, even on days when I'm home all day long! I think the Devil is probably working pretty hard to keep us overwhelmed and inattentive to this material because it holds such great hope and promise for us. He doesn't want us to keep making room for the Promised Land type of life God offers by freeing up our hearts of respectable sins and other idols. But that's enough of my own personal commentary here; I'll get to the study material.
I'm looking at Questions #2-3 from the Personal Application section. It's amazing to me how difficult these basic truths of the gospel message are to truly believe and apply to my life. The things Jerry explained on pgs. 34-35 are so simple and true, yet so easy to complicate or just plain disbelieve.
Of all the things I underlined, the one that is probably key for me is this: "To the extent that I grasp, in the depth of my being, this great truth of God's forgiveness of my sin through Christ, I will be freed up to honestly and humbly face the particular manifestations of sin in my life." That's my desire... to recognize my sin as sin, to grow increasingly LESS sinful, and to display the power of Christ's redemption through my life. That sounds so hypocritical to say when I know how I really live so much of the time, but it truly is what I want, as poorly as I may be living it out.
What I think I have to trust in most is the encouragement that this transformation comes through "incremental progress" as he says on p. 41. I really would prefer instantaneous perfection, but I guess that only comes with heaven, and I'm not feeling quite ready to head that way just yet. (That's crazy, I know, and we could have a whole conversation about our strange human desire to remain in this broken world!)
Something similar Beth and I talked about this week is her (and my... and all of your) desire to have a pure heart...to live out of pure motivations and act in a Christ-like way. One of my favorite promises from scripture is this, found in Jeremiah 29:13: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." I think the way in which I need to pray that right now is that I will truly believe that 1) through Christ's redemption, I am able to seek Him with my whole heart, and that 2)the Lord will answer me and be found by me when I seek Him and call to Him. He keeps His promises.
So, nothing deeply profound coming from me this week, but at the same time it feels very profound to consider these truths and the transforming power they have in life. I hope and pray that the true weight of them will penetrate each of us in a new and deeper way.
I continue to be frustrated (which, by the way, is apparently a respectable sin; see chapter 8...great!)by how the ways I see myself, God, my sin and other people can so contradict one another. Like Tiff said, I just so desperately want to operate out of a pure heart and motives!
I'm heading to p. 35, too, where Jerry writes about the assurance that God doesn't count our sin against us: "I am not alone in this battle with sin. God is not watching me from His heavenly throne saying, 'When are you going to get your act together? When are you going to deal with that sin?' Rather, He is, as it were, coming alongside me saying, 'We are going to work on that sin, but meanwhile I want you to know that I no longer count it against you.' God is no longer my Judge; He is now my heavenly Father, who loves me with a self-generated, infinite love, even in the face of my sin. That assurance greatly encourages me and motivates me to deal with the sin. Further [this assurance] produces within me a strong sense of gratitude for what He has done and is presently doing for me through Christ."
This is one of those truths that I know but is so hard for me to truly grasp. It's very difficult for me not to think that God is just disappointed in me most of the time. And while I have grown in this and am getting closer to a "heart knowing" of this truth, I can't wait for the day when I fully know it. I have hope that at least to some extent I'll experience that here on this earth--that He continues to lead me closer to that "full life" He promises is available. I think knowing truly how God sees me is and will be truly transforming and freeing both in my relationship with Him and with others.
I'm frustrated now with my heart and my failure upon failure, yet this truth gives me such hope--enough hope to continue believing there is more, more freedom, more hope, more grace, more love for me and for us. I just go back to my thought from many, many posts ago: What else is really worth living for?
Tiff - you are reading my mind. I am ashamed to say I haven't even finished reading chapters 4-6! I am so frustrated with myself, yet I can't seem to make myself sit down long enough to read. GRRR.
Particularly what you wrote, "I constantly struggle to find any sort of routine being in the Word or spending significant time in prayer, even on days when I'm home all day long! I think the Devil is probably working pretty hard to keep us overwhelmed and inattentive to this material because it holds such great hope and promise for us. He doesn't want us to keep making room for the Promised Land type of life God offers by freeing up our hearts of respectable sins and other idols." MAJOR DITTO.
Thanks to Tiff & Beth for being such faithful posters and sharing their hearts. I am planning to get back on track - with God's help!
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