From the Greatest Gift, a Love God Greatly Advent Study
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:1, SOAP: 1 Peter 4:10-11
God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11
Reflection Question:
What are some of the spiritual gifts God has given you?
How can we use our gifts to bless the body of Christ?
“The gifts our good God gives us are not items to unwrap under the Christmas tree, but elements of our personality and character that make us uniquely designed to advance His kingdom.”
Read: Psalm 34:8, Psalm 84, Mark 10:18; SOAP: Psalm 84:11
For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
Psalm 84:11 NLT
Reflection Question: How can it be comforting to know that God is your protector?
Although the gifts God gives us aren’t wrapped up with bows and beautiful paper, they are worth so much more than anything we will ever find under the Christmas tree.
Truth: And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8 NLT
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How does thinking on what is true help us overcome lies?
Truth: Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32
What do you think?
Where do we find truth?
What does it mean to ‘walk in truth’?
If we want to stand firm against deceit, we must learn to walk in truth.
Truth: If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:5 NLT
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Why is it important to surround ourselves with people who are wise?
Some of us may not think of ourselves as wise. Fortunately, wisdom is a trait we can develop. Scripture mentions a couple of ways we can grow in wisdom.
The link shared below is something I found both encouraging and helpful. I wanted to share it with the hope that it will also encourage you to spend some quality time with God. I will preface it with this … prayer can also be spontaneous which Scripture supports in Colossians 4:2, where it tells us to pray continually or devote yourselves to prayer as some translations say, painting a picture, not of praying once a day, but praying throughout the day.
However, as Pastor John teaches in this devotional, Plan for Prayer, prayer is also meant to be a time planned or set aside to spend purposefully with God – for the specific purpose of praying. I will also add – we should set aside time to spend in His Word – the two can be combined but neither should be neglected or we cheat ourselves out of one of the greatest privileges of our salvation – a personal relationship 💗 with the True and Living God💜 . This includes entering into His presence boldly and with confidence both to talk to and to hear from God (Ephesians 3:12 and Hebrews 4:16 [14-16]), knowing that we have been brought near through the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13 [11-18]), and believing He wants us to understand His Word and know His will for us (Luke 24:45, Romans 12:2, and 2 Timothy 2:15) – May this add strength and encouragement to your day and blessings to your weekend 😊
This is a segment of “Solid Joys” from Desiring God, a site I follow by John Piper
Truth: Many people say, “Who will show us better times?” Let your face smile on us, LORD. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe.
Psalm 4:6-7 NLT
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Can you truly be happy apart from God?
Why or why not?
Psalm 68:3 declares that the righteous will be glad and celebrate because of God. He is the reason for our joy and our salvation. He gives us purpose and life. Those who do not believe often try to fill their lives with other things, but they ultimately are unsatisfied. –
Think about your life, or more specifically your day, and make a list of things that make you happy. Now, what if all those things were stripped away from you, could you still be happy? Would the day be a good day, or a bad day? Would life still be worth living? I fear that many of us would answer those questions with an unapologetic, “no.” –