Shape Up Week 1
Sharable notes for the January 8, 2023 message. You can post these notes on your social platform!
Scriptures used: Matthew 6:9-13; Galatians 3:2-3; 5:6; Philippians 1:6,9-11; Galatians 4:6; Psalm 63:1; 2 Timothy 3:16; James 4:8
Passages referenced: Matthew 6:5-8, 14-15; Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7-9
"Religion says, ‘I obey - therefore I’m accepted.’ The gospel says, ‘I’m accepted - therefore I obey.’” Tim Keller
Our behavior or methods in spiritual formation should come from the love we have for God.
The more we grow aware of God’s love for us, the more we see a need for a consistent ethic of prayer in our life. Then the more we pray, the more we are drawn into dependence upon God.
To cut yourself off from prayer is to cut yourself off from the power of God.
The effectiveness of our prayer is not determined by how much we do it, or how eloquently we do it, but how much we love to do it.
Prayer is meant to be a part of your life that helps you grow spiritually. It’s not meant for you to just appear spiritual.
God intends that we speak with Him, and we are invited to be intentional in our relationship with the Father.
Our understanding of God as a Father is important in the foundation of the formation of our faith.
Our relationship with God is not a relationship that exists because we need something from Him, we just simply need Him.
We are where we are by the design and plan of God to proclaim the promises of God in those exact places.
Don’t look at the Bible as simply a textbook to learn, but instead as a book of promises to be claimed.
We live in a culture that thinks rebuke is hate and calling out sin is intolerant. Correction is not meant to be seen as hate, it’s meant to be seen as grace. We need that kind of grace from God. Grace that identifies our sin and leads us to repentance.
You’re growth through prayer is forming in you a reliance on God to give you the grace to say no to temptation and yes to Him.
Our unforgiveness becomes a roadblock to God’s forgiveness.
We live in a culture that wants to cancel or attack rather than show grace. But remember prayer is teaching us to value God’s kingdom here on earth, so that means we realize that being forgiven leads us to be forgiving.
Receiving grace should compel us to give grace and to live in grace.
Reflect or meet with someone to discuss:
Where or how did you learn to pray?
Does your prayer life match the description Jesus calls us to pursue in Matthew 6? Why do you answer that way?
In the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, what about that model do you feel you do well? Where would you like to improve?
Click the image to start a new 8 day devotion in YouVersion:
Join J.John on an eight-day study on the Lord’s Prayer, that incredibly profound and helpful teaching given by Jesus on how we should pray.