Relational Spirituality Study 2

Week 2 Relational Spirituality

Part One: Loving God Completely

“As a communion of three persons, God is a relational being. He originates a personal relationship with us, and our high and holy calling is to respond to his loving initiatives. By loving God completely, we discover who we are and whose we are as we come to see ourselves as God sees us. In this way, we become secure enough to become others-centered rather than self-centered and enables us to become givers rather than grabbers.”

This Week’s Focus: Loving God Completely

“Since God is a relational being, we who are created in his image are also created to right relationships, first with him and then with each other.”

Directions: There are assigned passage(s) for five days each week. Read them in light of the Relational Spirituality theme and the Week’s Focus found directly above.

A daily spiritual discipline is to learn to hear God’s voice from his Word. Please don’t look at this as a homework assignment.

Find a quiet place each day to read the passage(s) slowly a couple of times through. 


Summarize the passage(s) under the questions:

“What was said?” 
Write down what the author was saying to his original audience?

“What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying.

“What was God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today under the third question.

Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?

Day 1

Mark 12:28–34 ESV

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“What was said?” The greatest commandment is to love “the Lord our God” with all our hear, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Knowing this put us not far from the kingdom of God

“What was God saying?” 
 Knowing this puts us not far from the kingdom of God, but not in the kingdom of God. So what puts us in the kingdom of God? Doing this, not just knowing it. All of the commandments can be summed up in doing these two things, which we are incapable of doing, but doesn’t excuse us, thankfully Jesus did this for us.

“What was God saying to you?” 
 How much do I know vs how much do I do because of what I know. Knowing isn’t the answer, but doing motivated by what I know, by the love of God first for me then for others.

Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?

DAY 2

Ephesians 1:17–23 ESV

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

“What was said?” We need God to give us the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, we need the “eyes” of our heart enlightened so we can know the hope He has called us to, the riches of His glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.

“What was God saying?” 
 It is His Spirit that is wisdom and knowledge, He can enlighten us, open the eyes of our hearts so we can know all that He has for us and has done for us, demonstrated by what He did for Jesus.

“What was God saying to you?” 
This is an ask that God can grant, clearly wants to grant and yet I’m not asking for this, praying for this, why?

Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?

DAY 3

Ephesians 3:14–21 ESV

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

“What was said?” 


“What was God saying?” 


“What was God saying to you?” 


Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?

DAY 4

Colossians 1:9–14 ESV

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

“What was said?” 


“What was God saying?” 


“What was God saying to you?” 


Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?

DAY 5

John 15:9–17 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.


“What was said?”

“What was God saying?”

“What was God saying to you?” 


Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you and how you can apply this in your life in your weekly group meeting?