Relational Spirituality Week 8

Relational Spirituality

WEEK EIGHT

LOOKING BACK (Care and Accountability)

· How was your week (highlights, difficulties, challenges, etc.)?

· In what way did you influence someone this week in their relationship with the King?

“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.”

Part Three: Loving Others Compassionately

“The closer our walk with God, the more we are empowered to manifest our love for Him through act of love to others.”

This Week’s Focus: Understanding the importance of forgiveness in our relationships.

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:


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

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

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today.

4. 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?

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DAY 1 PASSAGES:

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1. “What was said?” 
 Write down what the author was saying to his original audience. If we confess, He is faithful and just, He’s good and fair, He will forgive us because He’s already forgiven us and paid the penalty for us on the cross, but not only forgiveness, a cleansing of the dirt, the filth and grime that comes with our sin. This is how we are presentable to Him, clean, and how our relationship is restored after we’ve broken trust.

2. “What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying. This is His character and nature, His desire is to heal us, to forgive us, to cleanse us, so we can be in His presence and in right relationship with us. Even though we’ve already been forgiven, once we’ve broken trust, committed spiritual adultery, we need to be restored, cleansed, and reconciled.

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today. Don’t take this lightly, this came at a massive cost, the life and blood of Jesus. This is grace and mercy, this is the ongoing loving kindness of God. He never has had enough, been burned too many times, done, He’s always ready to forgive and to restore us. If He then is like this with us, shouldn’t we be like this with others.

4. 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 PASSAGES:

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

1. “What was said?” 
 Write down what the author was saying to his original audience. God, do a thorough examination of me, see my deepest parts, my thoughts and intentions, desires, etc. Try me, weigh me on your scales, reveal to me all my grievous ways, then lead me in the right and holy way.

2. “What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying. I’m ready to do this for you, not to shame you or bring you down, on the contrary, this is to bring you up, out of the depths of sinfulness and make you more like Jesus. This is a good thing and should be our desire, knowing is half the battle.

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today. When was the last time you asked God to do this examination and are you prepared to hear what He reveals?

4. 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 PASSAGE:

Ephesians 4:31–32 ESV

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

New Living Translation Chapter 4

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

1. “What was said?” 
 Write down what the author was saying to his original audience. “Let all be put away from you” is quite different from the NLT which says “get rid of”. In the first it seems as if we need to let them be taken from us, in the second it seems we need to do the work and “excommunicate” them from ourselves. Both translations have the word “be” which can be a verb as in, go and do, or a verb as in exist in this way. With the last passage we read, I’m hearing that we ask God to search us and take away all this crap, and then we are freed up to be the new us who He has created us to be, kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, like God.

2. “What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying. This is the struggle between two natures, the flesh and the Spirit, both affect who we are and how we live. Allow the Spirit to remove these and allow the Spirit to live through you in this way, don’t you want to “be” like this?

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today. Pray, search me, reveal, remove, and then ask, live through me, fill these empty spaces.

4. 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 PASSAGE:

Matthew 5:23–24 ESV

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

1. “What was said?” 
 Write down what the author was saying to his original audience. Be the initiator of reconciliation, God was the initiator, first with Adam, then with Abraham, then with Jesus. He has pursued us so we could see our offenses against Him. Don’t do religion, do relationship, first with God then with others. Humble yourself and go and make things right, if you’re not right with others, God doesn’t want our offering.

2. “What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying. I came to you, gave you eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to receive, I gave your dead body life, I initiated reconciliation, so you go and do likewise. Don’t play the religious game, I don’t need your offering, nor do I want it if I revealed to you that you’ve wronged your brother and now do nothing about it.

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today. Does my brother have something against me? Who might I have wronged? Am I even listening for God to reveal this to me? Stop, ask, shut up and listen, what is God saying?

4. 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 PASSAGE:

Colossians 3:12–14 ESV

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

New Living Translation Chapter 3

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

1. “What was said?” 
 Write down what the author was saying to his original audience. We have been given the righteousness of Christ, to live within us, to “put on” as a garment. This isn’t something we have to go and do, or earn, but something that is at our disposal. We, if Christ is in us, can be tenderhearted, merciful, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. We can be forgiving and have understanding of why others hurt us. This is love, being loving, which clearly binds things together and creates harmony.

2. “What was God saying?” 
Write down what God was/is saying. You are these things and can be these things. You are holy, righteous, and have holiness and righteousness living within you. If we can crucify ourselves daily, allow the Spirit of God to live our through us, we will be like Jesus, and God. But if we are looking out for ourselves, and too self-centered, then the offenses of others will be too hurtful, too intentional, and we won’t be empathetic or forgiving. We will exist without true love and won’t live lovingly towards others.

3. “What is God saying to you?” 
 Apply the passage’s meaning to you today. Myself is my self’s worst enemy. My pride, my self esteem, my ego, my need to be filled by others, my conceit and need for empty glory. If and when I am filled and satisfied by God and in God I am now freed up to live as the Holy Spirit living through me.

4. 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?

WEEKLY GROUP TIME

LOOKING UP (Scripture and Discussion)

· What did you hear God saying in the readings this week?

· What did you hear God saying to you in the readings this week?

· What word, phrase or passage got your attention this week? And why?

· How has it changed the way you live or the way that you see the world?

LOOKING FORWARD (Prayer and Commissioning)

· Personal: Based on our time today, how can we pray for you and for one another?

· Mission: How can you influence someone this week in their relationship with the King?

Unlimited Potential, Inc. | 2020