One Off: Words in the Wilderness
TO START: Taking a pause from our current series, Even Greater, this week’s sermon focused on the gift of the wilderness in our life with God. We often envision the wilderness as a dry, barren, and desolate place. However, Scripture portrays it as a spiritual space for preparation, testing, and learning to trust.
TO READ: Genesis 16:5-15
TO DISCUSS:
(1.) What is something meaningful from your past that you spent time preparing for? How did it go?
(2.) In Genesis 16, Hagar hears from the Lord while she is in the wilderness. Have you found it to be true that the wilderness tends to be a place where God's voice is amplified in your life? Have you experienced Hagar's name for God, "The God Who Sees Me," as evident in your own life?
(3.) What area of your life right now are you tempted to label as a desert that may actually be a wilderness—a place where God is speaking to you?
(4.) One of the questions the Lord asks Hagar is, "Where are you going?" What area of your life do you feel uncertain about where you are headed?
(5.) In the message, it was said, "In the wilderness, we're asked to trust God in the simplest things to train us for the greater or more challenging things ahead." What has God revealed to you about your trust in Him during your wilderness moments?
BLESSING PRAYER:
To close small group, we invite you to continue the practice of blessing prayer together. But this week, we invite you to dwell with the first half of Psalm 63 as a starting point.
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you,I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
We invite your group to pray these words as a way to center on God’s presence in the wilderness and then we encourage y’all as a group to pray any words of blessing that flow from Psalm 63, words of blessing for someone in the group who may be in a wilderness moment.