This I Know Study – Week 4

This I Know – Week 4

Our Eyes Are On You (pages 123-160)

2 Chronicles 20:1-30

We hope that this study is ministering to your life circumstances right now. The focus of this chapter is that our eyes are focused on God. This chapter planted us in 2 Chronicles. You studied it with both the SOAP method and “Listen & Linger.” These are tools you can take with you outside of this to study God’s Word.

The take away is that in the middle of the unknown Jehoshaphat had three responses:

1. Fix your eyes.
2. Respond in prayer.
3. Respond in worship – Because God has this!

How have the practices of spiritual disciplines prepared you for life situations?

Lauren – Crisis moments that I can trust to lean on the Lord because I have hid His Word in my heart so I can trust the Holy Spirit to bring up something that I know or have studied for what I need in that moment. The Holy Spirit can’t bring up something that I haven’t put in. I have a word to give someone else because of first the Holy Spirit but second because my pursuit of God’s Word.

Breanne – Building a tool boxe where we are putting things in it so we know what to use and when. When we get into “war” moments we have them ready. For me it would be fasting because it allows me to take a step back from the comfort of food to have a watchfulness to what the Lord is doing and a surrender.

Julie – Being in His word, so that if what I am doing is not glorifying Him – it is pretty evident. Scripture refocuses my thoughts. Being in prayer helps me to continually surrender. “You show me what you want me to do.”

Lisa – If I say that I am going to follow God but there is no evidence that I have had any input from the Lord in a week (TV, podcasts, people), How then can my eyes be fixed on Him? If you are prepared for war, it is the work you did beforehand often that prepares you. In the middle of a crisis it is difficult to develop a habit. The Lord can equip in that but being skillful is the goal and you want to come into the war prepared. Which takes time.

Breanne – Hammer & nails have different jobs and it matters. Once educated on the purpose and how to use tools from a wiser person – it made a big difference on effectiveness for home repair.

Can disciplines become our natural response into what is going on in your life?

Lauren– When we lived in Texas it was a hard time, I found myself struggling. God turned my thinking around and called me to dive into the Word. I struggled a little but quickly God reminded me to get into His Word. The whole process changed from then because I got into the Word and fixed my eyes on Jesus not my circumstances.

Julie – A hard time in my life was when my mom died. I had four little kids and had to keep going. But I had this desire to spend time with the Lord in that time because I knew the true comfort came from God. I replaced my perspective that it has to be at a specific time with the idea that it really needs to be intentional. Make time to meet with the Lord.

Breanne – I read the book Sacred Chaos and that was a huge truth for my own soul that I needed time with God and to pursue that. When your heart hungers for that, it is different than it being scheduled and it is okay.

Lisa – It goes from praying in my quiet time to now I am praying continually. That sense that God’s Word is not just something that I intake but it spills out of me. When someone shares something with you that is burdensome, our natural response can be “can I pray with you about that?” The spiritual disciplines set us up to live it out. Our first week was about our experiential knowledge and this is what we are talking about taking our spiritual disciplines into experiences.

Have you worshipped in a storm holding hope, but not with the answer in hand?

Breanne – being a business owner during COVID. So much exhaustion from being creative and bills still have to be paid. What is going to happen? We don’t have what it takes but we are going to watch and worship God to see how this goes. We are financially vulnerable but it has been a life changing process to watch God orchestrate the details.

Lisa – Julie’s nephew’s story from Philippians podcast

Julie’s Update – Nephew’s wife, Lindsey is pregnant again which is just amazing. They are expecting a girl in April. Praise God.

Lauren – in Covid, worship has looked different. It can be alone in your room. I have never loved the church more. When we were separated and I sat on my couch, it broke my heart to not be with our church family. In the midst we didn’t know when it would end and we really are still in it but I learned that worship can be different than what we always think. You can worship on a zoom call with 90 women studying the Psalms. You can worship in your car. God is worthy whether I feel like it or not.

Julie – I have watched my mother in-law’s heart transformed. Her and my father in law (who has dementia) are living together in the same room in assisted living. They aren’t really able to leave the room but she is thankful. She just has so much joy in the Lord. She is content to be in this room with a husband who isn’t really able to communicate because she is focusing on God.

And this is what we know….

God shows up.

We need to grow our awareness of His work.

He is my help and it comes from HIM alone.