Use these for group work, or to assist your personal reflection.
- What advice from this passage is directly relevant to the church and Christian family life today?
- How can we stand out from the world in the quality of service and work we do? Discuss examples in your group.
- How do we ‘receive back from the Lord’ the ‘good we do’ (v8)?
Use the programme which can be found on the link ‘discipleship challenges’. The ‘worksheet’ will help you follow through anything you feel is right to take up. The following notes are for your interest and consideration.
Personal comment: Sometimes, people seem to reserve the worst of themselves for loved ones at home. Home is a place to crash out and let go of the disciplines of the world and ‘be yourself’ they say! How terrible! For if ‘being myself means being selfish and demanding, even ruthless towards others for my own gain, then family life is compromised. If I am lost in Christ, then I am likely to be a far better person wherever I am!
Ideas for discipleship programme
- Ask yourself the question; ‘am I a people pleaser’? This is hard to ask and hard to answer, at least, for some. Nevertheless, ask this of yourself and seek the Lord’s guidance on how you might best be someone who is a ‘God-pleaser’.
- Put aside a few minutes at the end of each day to assess whether you have attained the standards of behaviour you should aspire to. Bring your thoughts about this to the Lord.
In Your wisdom, Lord God, give me what I need to live my life; and reveal a little of what is to come so that I may be encouraged to move on in Your strength. Lead me into Your future, and show me the path by which I may fulfil my true vocation as Your disciple. Through Jesus Christ, I pray; AMEN
