Gentle and Lowly: Session 4 (Spring 2022)

Session 4 – Small Group Study Guide

Gentle and Lowly Chapters 6-7

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Study Questions

1. Ortlund correctly assumes from Jesus’ words that we have innate suspicions of his deepest heart (61). If we didn’t, why would Jesus need to assure us that he would never cast us out (John 6:37b)? In light of this assumption, what fears and suspicions do you have of Jesus’ heart toward you? As you consider what these fears and suspicions are, consider also when these fears and suspicions arise.
2. Think on the phrase used in the KJV: “I will in no wise cast out.” Examine Bunyan’s list of objections on p. 61. With which one(s) do you most identify and why?
3. What picture of Jesus emerges from chapter 6, especially from pp. 63-64? Ortlund says that we are factories of fresh resistance to Christ’s love … we tend to retain a vague sense that, given enough time, Jesus will finally grow tired of us. How does the promise that Jesus will never grow tired of us shed light on the relationships and people that we tend to grow tired of?
4. Fill in the blank of this statement, “When I sin, Jesus’ heart is _________________ me.” Be honest. Why did you fill the blank of this statement in this way? What Scriptures either affirm or challenge your fill-in-the-blank response?
5. Commenting on Hosea 11:7-9, Ortlund writes that God’s “heart is inflamed with pity and compassion for his people. He simply cannot give them up. Nothing could cause him to abandon them. They are his” (73). Does this sound like a God who has given up on you? To play on the words of the chapter, what does the heart of God evoke in your heart?
6. Read the following verses. How does each text hammer home God’s gentle heart and posture toward you through Jesus Christ?

• Romans 2:3
  “…do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
• Ephesians 2:4-7
  “but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
• Titus 3:4
  “…when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life

Sharing and Prayer

1. What is one thing from this study that has impacted your understanding of Jesus? How might this add a dimension to how you relate to Him?
2. In light of the “no wise cast out” welcome of Jesus (see question 2), spend some time thanking Him for His steadfast lovingkindness of you.
3. Share other prayer requests: