GROW BIBLE STUDY
This bible study is designed to help believers at all stages grow in their faith and relationship with the LORD. This includes focusing on God and who He is and how He desires to have a relationship with us. This LOVE that He has was so important that He offered himself up in order to have a relationship with us. All of this calls us to worship Him. At the end of this study the participants should have a stronger faith in God and relationship with God. This study is designed to be completed over a four week period, one day a week.
2- RELATIONSHIP
Opening prayer (may be modified): LORD, thank you that we are able to come together again to learn about you and grow in our relationship with you. God we know that you love us, help us to lean into you and to lean on you. We praise you and we thank you. We pray all this in Jesus’s name, amen!
Ice Breaker- Share which book you read this past week and what stood out to you.
Since the beginning when God spoke this world and everything in it into existence we are able to see that it was important to Him to have a relationship with His people, with us. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” Genesis 3:8a. We are able to note throughout the bible that God maintains his relationship with His people, that He hears His people and communicates with His people.
Here are a few of the many verses to reference: 2 Samuel 22:14, Exodus 20:1 (extended if time permits 20:1-17), Jonah 1:1-2.
Each of us chose one of the gospels to read last week and we gathered that not only did God come down as Christ Jesus to be with us but also more importantly to die for us because He wanted us to have an eternal relationship with us in heaven. We know from last week that one way we are able to spend time with the LORD is through spending time in His word (John 1:1).The bible tells us “pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Jesus also demonstrates the importance of prayer as He spends time in prayer and teaches His disciples how to pray. In your homework readings you should have noted the many times that Jesus spent praying. It is clear that Jesus Christ was passionate about praying; “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” Luke 6:12. God gave multiple ways to fellowship with Him; He gave us His word, He gave us prayer and He also gave us the Holy Spirit. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14.
- How would you describe God’s relationship with His people over time?
- What does it take to build and maintain a strong relationship?
- Why would Jesus, being God Himself, spend time praying to God while He was on Earth?
- What does it mean to pray without ceasing?
- What is the freedom that we get from the Holy Spirit?
- How can that freedom be present in our lives?
Homework: Keep a relationship journal. Spend time reading the bible and praying; use your journal to write down reflections on the word and/or your prayers to God. Attempt to spend at least 20 minutes or more a day in this activity. In your journal time focus on the sacrifice that the LORD has made for us.
Closing Prayer (may be modified): LORD, as we venture into the week determined to spend time with you and to build and strengthen our relationship with you, we pray that you will enlighten us and enable us to feel your presence. We praise you and thank you that you want a relationship with us, help us to always spend time with you. We pray this in Jesus’s name, amen!