Starter Question:
Go around your group and have everyone share a high and a low from the past week.
(Also known as Happy/Crappy, Peak/Pit, Rose/Thorn)
Everyone Gets To Suffer- Video
Video Discussion Questions:
- What's been one of your hardest bouts with suffering?
- How do you tend to handle/react to your pain and heartache?
- Tell about how you've experienced God the Holy Spirit in your darkest/hardest places.
Discovery Bible Study: Romans 8:17-28
Read from Romans 8 and answer the Discovery Bible Study Questions:
- How does this passage inform the suffering that we've experienced?
- What do we learn about the Spirit/Jesus/God from this passage?
- What do we learn about people from this passage?
- What do you sense God saying to you from this passage?
- What do you sense God asking you to do in response?
Next Step Practices:
Mild: Lament
The pathway into conversation with God about our deepest pain is called lament. Over 1/3 of the Psalms are laments - cries of anger, mourning, frustration, pain, and disappointment.
Write out a prayer of lament to your Heavenly Father. Model it after one of the Psalms.
Medium: Listen
Kick it up a notch after pouring your heartache out to God. Sit and wait quietly, and then ask God to share his heart with you about all that you just vented. In a different color pen write out all the thoughts that come to your mind next, trusting that this is Holy Spirit expressing God's heart to you.
Hot: Look
- Pay attention for the next week to how God shows up and brings comfort or redemptive goodness to your pain.
- Share it with someone, anyone. Especially if they aren't a follower of Jesus. Share about how God has met you in your suffering.
This Week I Will...