Week 1: introduction

Hi Ladies,

 

Hope you are having a great week.  Thank you so much for coming out on Saturday morning.  I thought we had a really great group, and I am looking forward to some interesting conversations  :)

 

Here are some thoughts and questions for this week pertaining to the introduction:

 

Jesus spoke a lot about the difficulty of rich people getting into heaven.  Check out these verses (and the surrounding context):

 

Luke 6:24

Luke 8:14

Luke 12:21

Luke 1:53

 

Jen Hatmaker writes:  "the day I am unaware of my privleges and unmoved by my greed is the day something has to change."  Have you thought about how much you have, and if your "stuff" (whatever that is), is taking up so much room that you are allowing it to squeeze out Jesus?  She suggests that we spend time in prayer about this and asks "If we have a blind spot, a very grave one according to Jesus, dont we want to know it?"

 

God gave us a tool to "heighten our spiritual sensitivity and perhaps expedite His intervention" That tool is fasting.

 

Scripture gives six extreme circumstances that may command a fast.  They are:

mourning, inquiry, repentance, preparation, crisis and worship.  Which area motivates you to fast from your own excess?

 

Read Isaiah 58:1-7

 

Questions from Jen:

What is God begging us to refrain from here?

What does their reaction in verse 3 communicate to you?

How can you relate to this confusion?

 

I will end with the descriptions of fasting from Jen:

 

"Fasting is an intentional reduction, a deliberate abstinence to summon God's movement in our lives.  A fast creates margin for God to move"

 

Are you ready for God to move in your life?

 

 

Keeping you all in my prayers this week, Leslie