Siesta Summer Study, Weeks 3 & 4
Siesta Summer Bible Study (Weeks 3 and 4) -Part 1 from LPV on Vimeo.
Siesta Summer Bible Study (Weeks 3 and 4) -Part 2 from LPV on Vimeo.
If you’re able to stay on schedule, you should have weeks 3 and 4 of your homework completed and your group discussion will be a reflection of that material. I hope you can watch the video instructions I’ve prepared for you but, just in case you have technical difficulty, here is a list of your four interactives for today’s gathering:
(The first two are from Week 3; The second set is from Week 4.)
1. In our LPM small group discussion, we never made it past the second page of Day One without stopping for discussion. Look at the top of p.57 and note the track Jennifer gave us from emotions to thoughts to actions. Discuss its relevance and any recent examples. At the bottom of that same page, she refers to “THINKING WITH OUR FEELINGS.” Discuss this familiar female propensity as well.
2. Turn to p.65 where we studied the woman with the issue of blood. In the first full paragraph, Jennifer writes, “We often face one defining circumstance that becomes the headwater from which other issues flow.” Would some of you be willing to share what your “one defining circumstance” is and how it tends to affect a number of different areas?
OK, this is not a discussion question but I want to mention it because it was one of my very favorite things and I’ve thought about it a ton since I read it. Take a glance at p.73 where Jennifer shares the story about being stuck on a plane and the little girl near her saying to her daddy, “I spy something good.” Did that speak to you, too?
Now, from Week Four:
3. Based on p.81. where Jennifer discusses what we say to ourselves when we talk to ourselves about sin: What has been your most recurrent conviction lately and what are you doing about it? (If you’re not presently doing anything about it, admitting it to your group is a start!)
Discuss how she ties up the point on p.87 with these words: “Never let the Enemy be more aware of your weaknesses than you are.”
4. Review p.88. Do you have a framework set up in your life for consistent accountability? Do you have at least one person in your life who holds you accountable in your pursuit of God and godliness and doesn’t just help you stay comfortable in your strongholds? Look at Jennifer’s statement: “The Enemy goes after the solitary and the silent.”
Discuss the fears involved in opening up to accountability and the solutions to those fears. What holds us back? Is it time? Exposure? Fear of confidence being betrayed? Talk about fears, solutions, and the importance of taking the chance.
That should keep you busy today and smack in the middle of each other’s business! Thank you so much for participating. Study hard! See you in two weeks and we’ll finish up!
I don’t know about you all, but this study is really getting me. I am really having to think on quite a bit of this information. AND I am having to really evaluate my “thought closet”. God is convicting me and opening my eyes to the “whys’, (how certain thoughts and lies have gotten in my mind). It has been real good. So…
1.) Is this even a question? YES! Thinking with my feelings seems to be a real issue. Pick anything I am struggling with and I can see how I “feel” a certain way in the situation, then it can get me “thinking” all kinds of crazy ideas, and that definitly leads to any number of “actions”. Good grief! I guess an example that most comes to mind is feeling hurt. Then thinking, “I am all alone” or “No one really cares about me”, etc. And those kinds of thoughts lead to anger or bitterness or short temper or defeat or depression…you all get the idea. Something else that I seem to struggle with quite a bit is with my husband acting in a way that makes me feel hurt or mad. This can be over anything, even sometimes (I am sad to say) over something petty. Then I began to tell myself that he doesn’t really care about me, which leads to he doesn’t really love me…and on. Then a whole number of actions could spill out (which all happen to be sinful in some way, not always, but it is a struggle that I am trying to acknowledge is there). The only reason I am brutally and honestly sharing these two examples with you all is so you can pray for me. These things don’t happen everyday, but I can see how they seem to happen on more than one occasion and I want God to prune these things out of my life.
2.) Geez. Are these questions super personal this week or what? As, Beth says, “We need God to get into our business!” How else are we ever gonna be more like Him?
I guess a “defining circumstance” that seems to affect a number of different areas would be with past hurts in really close relationships. Things have gone a wry with very close people in my life, for quite a while now. It does affect so many other areas in my life. My husband and I have had (let’s say) the bottom fall out on many close realtionships in the past year or so. Family, Church family, friends…you name it. I know God has used it to spur us on in living for Him with a greater amount of deliberance, but it still has quite an affect on us now and then. We still really struggle with understanding most of it, and when it involves people you love and care about (even though you want to give some “holy” spankings to) and have known most of your lives, it really, really hurts. That affects how we think sometimes about ourselves, others and what God is doing. Does that make sense?
3.) Well, its kinda from #1. God’s been speaking to me (especially, through this study) about how I talk to my husband and the thoughts I think about him or twords him, sometimes. He is such a great guy and loving husband and I want to reflect that back to him in my words and actions, instead of letting satan use me to tear him down.
Also, God’s been speaking to me about forgiveness. Its been hard for me to really understand this sometimes. How do you forgive others when they are continually hurting you, on regular basis? I think forgiving someone is saying that its alright what they are doing, but that’s not it. Forgiving them is trusting God to take care of things and not harboring anger or bitterness or self-loathing in your heart. God knows the hurts we have and who has done them. He is The Healer and The only one who can help us live in freedom. I don’t want to forgive, instead I want the situations to be resolved, relationships to be restored and for those who have dished out the hurt, apologize. You pray for me to forgive and let God!
4.) Accountability. I am in a unusual spot. Everything has been changed by moving to place where we don’t know anyone and still are not connected to a body of believers, here. So, I do have a couple of people back home that I can trust and that will impart Truth to me and pray with me, but I feel like I do not have that accountability available to me where I am right now. I have been praying about this for a while. Please pray for Brian (my husband) and I to be God-led to a church and to get “plugged in” soon.
I would say that there are many fears that hold people back with being accountable to someone. Trust seems to be a good one for me lately. With coming out of quite a few relationships turned upside down in the past years, I feel hesitant to share with others.I get scared to get close and scared that things will turn badly again. I know in my head and heart that God does not want things to be this way and would say I would never let those thoughts or insecurities get in His way of putting us where He wants us, but I still struggle with those fears internally, still, from time to time.