Welcome to Sunday Fuel! This series of questions is designed to assist your personal reflection and fellowship with others about the sermon from this past Sunday.
Though this message does look at parenting, this Fuel will focus on loving well and encouraging joy in our lives and helping others to grow likewise.
In addition to examining your own heart, think about someone in the next generation you might invest in, either in your home, extended family, or at church.
1. Evaluate your love and joy:
- Consider what your choices, calendar, money, family culture reveal about your truest values. What upsets you? What do you devote your time to? How do these reflect your priorities? Would you be able to honestly say “To live is Christ”—or would you have to say it is something else?
- Would you say joy characterizes your life? What is your life marked by, if not joy: worry, impatience, anger…? Does it demonstrate a faith that is attractive and appealing to those around you?
- What are you pursuing for those under your care? Is your focus on their growth in love and joy or some other metric of success?
2. Respond to the Lord in prayer:
- Take some time to confess what you see in your heart to the Lord. Will you commit in the coming days to nurture the root of love for Christ in your heart and pray that it may bear the fruit of joy?
- Consider God’s many blessings in your life. Take time to thank God for the many blessings in your life, that are gifts of His grace, both spiritual and material. If you are in a season of suffering, how might you commit to letting God reframe your understanding of it, in light of joy?
- Take time this week to pray for these individuals in your life, using Paul’s prayer in vv. 9-11 as a starting point. Rather than equating success to being extraordinary in the world, pray that they might use you to encourage their love for Christ and find their joy in Him.
3. Expressing love and demonstrating joy to others:
- What are some practical ways you can demonstrate joy, connect joy of your blessings to Christ, and/or encourage joy in suffering? Think about your interactions with them: how might you share your love for Christ, point out His grace, or express joy in His care?
