Devotional Spirituality Study 2

Devotional Spirituality: Our Image of God

Life and Ministry

How was your week?

What is God doing...around You?

How did you influence someone this week in their relationship with Christ?

Main Idea

What are the keys to loving God, and how can we cultivate a growing intimacy with him? This section explores what it means to enjoy God and to trust in him. Henry Scougal observed that “the worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” We are most satisfied when we seek God’s pleasure above our own, and we gradually become conformed to what we most love and admire.

Overview

Devotional spirituality revels in the glorious attributes of God and aspires to lay hold of God’s desires for us. God’s world, his Word, his works, and his ways reveal his attributes to those who wish to know him.

Sub-Themes

· Our Image of God: Session 1 & 2

· The Contemplative Way: Sessions 3-5

· Falling in Love with God: Sessions 6-8

Principles and quotes come from Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation by Kenneth Boa

Directions

There are three passages for each week. Read them in light of the Semester Theme and the Week’s Focus found in the boxed section 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.

1. Summarize the passage(s). You might want to journal it.

2. What is God saying to you through the passage(s)? (Commands to obey, praise to give, sin to confess, etc.) Make note of it to better remember it.

3. What does it mean to fear God? Another way to say it, what does the fear of God look like in a Christ follower’s day?

4. Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you in your weekly group meeting. (No question mark needed here)

The key to effective application: Being a group member of like-minded Christ followers for encouragement and accountability.

Todays Passages

Psalms 19:1-6

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above[a] proclaims his handiwork.

2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

1. Summarize the passage(s). You might want to journal it.

David is using figurative language to describe how the heavens make God known. What we see in the sky, each day and night as the celestial bodies come and go, they shout of a creator, designer of all that we see, especially the rising and setting sun, how majestic it is.

2. What is God saying to you through the passage(s)? (Commands to obey, praise to give, sin to confess, etc.) Make note of it to better remember it.

This passage is definitely worthy or praise and confession, the first for how amazing it is and how it speaks so deeply to our souls, how captivating a beautiful sunrise/sunset can be, or a starry sky, mountains and canyons, rivers, etc,. But in saying that, how often do we just take these for granted, its normal, and fail to acknowledge God, or fail to give the credit to God for all that we see.

3. What does it mean to fear God? Another way to say it, what does the fear of God look like in a Christ follower’s day?

Fear here is awe, reverent awe, amazement of what we see, and also, a slight trepidation over the fact that a God who can do this, speak this into existence, how powerful must He be and what else can He do with a spoken word.

4. Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you in your weekly group meeting. (No question mark needed here)

Psalms 19:7-14

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

1. Summarize the passage(s). You might want to journal it.

As David ponders the wonders of God in creation, he then marvels at the revealed will of God to us in His law. How great is this God who not only can create, but also informs and guides His people, helps us to know how to live and be pleasing to Him. David is then made aware of his hidden and obvious shortcomings and trusts that this God who is making Himself known in this way is also a God who cleanse him.

2. What is God saying to you through the passage(s)? (Commands to obey, praise to give, sin to confess, etc.) Make note of it to better remember it.

Here I see a clear example to follow, to have a hunger for the “laws” of God, to desire them above all else, not for just knowledge but also for life and heart transformation.

Clearly then it is apparent, as David enters into confession and supplication, we too should, following David’s example.

Lastly, this is reason for praise, how great is this God who makes His will known to us and gives us clear understanding of how to be pleasing to Him.

3. What does it mean to fear God? Another way to say it, what does the fear of God look like in a Christ follower’s day?

Fear here is, again, awe and reverence. This creator God, who sees and knows all, has made His will known, how we should live known to us, how to be pleasing to Him known to us. Fear, then, is also fear, what are the consequences for me if I willingly am not following the “laws” of the Lord? Fear then returns to awe, because only our great God can cleanse us from our sins, and He willingly does that.

4. Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you in your weekly group meeting. (No question mark needed here)

Psalms 139:13-14

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

1. Summarize the passage(s). You might want to journal it.

At the deepest levels of our being, at our soul level, we know there is an intelligent designer to all we see and know. This creator God, has also made us, so intimately, that David uses language to indicate that God Himself is putting us together, we are His handiwork.

2. What is God saying to you through the passage(s)? (Commands to obey, praise to give, sin to confess, etc.) Make note of it to better remember it.

This is cause for praise, as David does. I praise you, Lord God, creator of all that is seen and unseen, in awe and amazement am I made, what a wonderful thing is life, and that of a newborn baby, You Lord are and have always been intimately involved in my life. I also confess, that this life You’ve made me for, have given me, I sometimes take as my own, use it and do with it what I please and not what is pleasing to You. Forgive me Father, Abba, Daddy, for I am Yours, and You are mine.

3. What does it mean to fear God? Another way to say it, what does the fear of God look like in a Christ follower’s day?

Is this not again awe and amazement, reverence for the awesomeness of created life and the intelligent designer behind it all. Awe that this God, who has created all, was and is intimately involved in my beginning, my present, and my future. How good this is for my soul. Fear also, as in I am not my own, I am His, and I at times am not living as His, I am not all I can be and should be for Him and His kingdom.

4. Be prepared to share how some of the Bible passages impacted you in your weekly group meeting. (No question mark needed here)

Weekly Group Time

1. Hearing from God

What is God saying…through His Word?

What passage of Scripture spoke to you? Why?

How did it change the way you live?

2. Talking to God

What do we need to say…to God about others and his Kingdom?

Personal: From the discussion, what can we pray for you?

Ministry: Where do you need God’s help in ministry this week?