Week 3 Bible Study Companion Leader: Sarah Travis. Hey guys, Sarah Travis with you for this week s Bible Study Companion!

Transcription

1 Week 3 Bible Study Companion Leader: Sarah Travis Hey guys, Sarah Travis with you for this week s Bible Study Companion! You know what s totally awesome about P31 OBS? It s worldwide! Yep, that s right! My husband is American and I m Scottish and after living together in the U.S. for five and a half years, we recently moved to Germany for his work, so that s where I m joining you from! What a journey we re having! I pray you re allowing God s Word and Tracie s message to work in your heart and mind. Remember, learning to love life again is not an overnight transformation you get up and walk away from. Like the Christian walk, it s a continual process. Today's Focus: Understanding how to love others well Later this week, we ll be reading chapters 6 and 7 of Love Life Again. In chapter 6, Conquer Loneliness, Tracie Miles mentions the marks of true friends, which immediately brought to mind a passage in Romans 12. In my ESV Bible, Romans 12:9-21 is titled, Marks of a True Christian (how fitting, right?). Go ahead and open up your Bible and I ll meet you back here once you re ready. Read Romans 12:9-21. Note any immediate thoughts from reading through the passage: Now let s break this passage down together to use Scripture to speak personally to us through honesty checks. That s a little term I like to use when I pause and ask God to help me see if I m living as Scripture tells me to. In this case, I m asking: am I living and loving others the way God calls me to showing, or not showing, the marks of a true Christian?

2 Re-read Romans 12:9-10. What does Paul talk about in these two verses? Yes! L.O.V.E. Love! Love leads the way. Genuine love for one another. Other translations of the Bible talk about this love being sincere; without hypocrisy; without pretending. God s love is purely focused on the recipient. It is a love freely given without any kind of expectation of results or consequences. When you show love to another, do you do so expecting a response? Are you ever motivated by your own needs when you show love to another? Are you ever left feeling disappointed after showing love? Pause for a moment to reflect on these questions and pray. At times, my answer to all of those questions is yes. Lord, help us to love through Your eyes, through Your mind, with Your heart. Let s look at verse 10 again: Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. What thoughts come to mind as you re-read this? When I think of devotion, I think of dedication a commitment. When we devote our time and love to something or someone, the focus is on the what or who, and not on ourselves.

3 That doesn t always come naturally, though. Not to me at least. And so it has to be a commitment we make. It s a decision we make to put others first. One commentary I read suggested that: The Christian is to take the initiative, and show honour or respect to others without waiting for them to show it to him. Ugh, again, I definitely need the Lord s help in doing this more. Where are you at with this? Do you wait to show honor and respect to others until they ve shown it to you? Re-read Romans 12: What does Paul talk about in these three verses? My toddler comes to mind when I think of the word zeal (verse 11)! When I m putting sunscreen on to go outside, he s constantly saying all done and trying to run off to play. He s so eager and doesn t want to wait. Is that how I am when it comes to serving the Lord? Honestly, verses 11 to 13 challenge me. I ve been through a lot of transition in the last six years. In 2012, I left my home country of Scotland to move to the U.S. and marry my husband. Since that time, we ve lived in five states and just last month moved to Germany. This has obviously caused me to be in many new settings, surrounded by new people. There have been trials and challenges along the way that often left me feeling lonely and left out. For the first several moves, I closed myself off in many ways, because I feared another move would take me away, and so I was hesitant to commit myself to anyone or anything. But in January of 2016, when we moved to a new town in a new state and I was pregnant with our first child, I was determined to make this move different. Instead of guarding myself against future change, I dedicated whatever time we d be there to the Lord. And, even with change on the horizon, I (mostly) remained joyful in hope, opening our home to friends and seeking ways to serve.

4 Because of this, I ended up making incredible friends, becoming a small group leader and teaching a six-week Bible study for the women of our church during their Tuesday morning Bible study. Doing this focusing on investing in others helped me to take my eyes off myself. Honestly Check Point! Have you gone through seasons of lacking zeal and joy? Where were you focused during those times? How can you change your mindset to be more in line with verses 11-13? Re-read Romans 12: What does Paul talk about in these verses? To me, these verses address our responses to situations, to persecution, evil, wrongdoing and our enemies. They address how we respond to the feelings of others. I don t know about you, but my immediate response when someone wrongs me is not kindness and compassion. I run from conflict faster than I run from spiders, but that doesn t mean I respond the way God asks me to. He doesn t want me to attack, but He doesn t ask me to run, either. He asks me to extend grace. To bless and to meet their needs. Oh, Lord, help us to walk in obedience to Your command to respond in blessing and love. Are you tempted to take revenge and help others see their wrongdoings? Do you fight back or run away? Which do you find you need the most help with? If needed, spend more time re-reading Romans 12:14-21, praying and asking God to help you see where you need His help.

5 Now that we ve broken it down, let s re-read the entire passage (Romans 12:14-21) once more and complete this chart, laying out what we are, and are not, to do. Do... Love Hold fast to what is good Do not... Do evil We could spend so much more time studying this passage! The truth is, these instructions still apply today. If we re truly seeking to transform our lives to reflect the way God wants us to live, then we must take our eyes off ourselves, our situations, and our feelings and fix them on others. It s only then that we re able to have hearts capable of loving like Christ. One sure-footed way to overcome loneliness and love life again is to demonstrate the marks of a true Christian and friend. Just imagine what might happen if, in our lonely moments, we reach out to a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a colleague, the person at the checkout in the grocery store and become the hands and feet (and smile) of Jesus in their lives. I pray you have a great week with Tracie and Anna studying chapters 6 and 7, and I will see you again next week in our Week 4 Bible Study Companion!