Caring for One Another: Session 7 (Fall 2020)

Session 7 – Small Group Study Guide

Lesson 5 – Be Personal and Pray

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Study Questions

PART I: Our hope in reading Caring for One Another is that we each might grow in loving others better.

1. Why do you think it is easy to read the book and think, “Why aren’t people loving me better?” How do you guard your heart from an inward focus on yourself and keep it focused upward on God and outward to others?
2. On p. 47, Welch says that when someone opens up their hearts, we should always respond. But he explains, “What guides our responses is both the Golden Rule (Matt 7:12) and humility. The Golden Rule asks, ‘What have other people said to me that was helpful and encouraging?’ Humility asks, ‘What could help and encourage you?’”

a. Over the past eight months of COVID-19, whom have you opened up to, sharing both blessings and burdens? What have been some helpful responses that you’ve received? What made them helpful? How did they reflect the Golden Rule and humility?

b. We all know the feeling of not knowing what to say when someone shares something very personal. How does the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) and humility help guide us in how we can lovingly respond?

3. Knowing others should lead us to praying with and for others. Why can it be hard to pray for people? Why can it be hard to pray with people, one-on-one?

PART II: Consider the people you identified in “Lesson 2: Move toward Others” that you wanted to move toward during this small group study. Write their names below and then proceed with the rest of the questions:

4. How have you actually moved towards them? Can you identify changes in the good, bad, and hard over the past two months?
5. Welch writes, ““Prayer joins together our knowledge of others, our love for them, and our knowledge of God and his promises” (48).” Based on your answers in question 4, write down some of the specific things you can pray for those 1-2 people. Don’t be afraid to pray for big things, small things, honest things, and specific things.
6. Come up with a specific plan on how you will connect with those 1-2 people this week to catch up and pray with them. (Text? Call? Visit? What day? What time? What specific encouragements can you offer? What questions can you ask them?)

Sharing and Prayer

1. Looking back, in what ways were you able to apply what you learned in the previous lesson (Lesson 4 of Caring for One Another) this past week?
2. Think of the 1-2 people you want to focus on caring for and moving toward during the rest of this small group season. Looking ahead, what are some ways that you would like to continue to apply what you just learned in this session to your own life as you seek to grow in caring for one another during this season of COVID-19?
3. Share other prayer requests: