By Levi Warren
Optional Kids Practice
Invite kids in your group to be with the adults for a few minutes. Once they seem ready to engage, ask them the following prompts. If you think it would be helpful, you can explain to the kids that the grown-ups are going to be talking about worship, and you want to include them by talking about it with them for a few minutes.
- How do you think worship brings us closer to God?
- What do you think it is about God that makes us want to love him?
1 John 4v19 says, “We love (God) because he first loved us.” Doing things to show that we love God isn’t how we earn his love; it’s simply how we respond to the love God has already shown us!
Begin with prayer
Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Spend a moment in silence, in the presence of Jesus and each other. Have one person read John 17v20-23 over the group and then pray to ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Debrief the most recent teaching
- What did you take away from the teaching, and how has it added to what God is doing in your life?
- What did you learn from your experience practicing worship as spiritual warfare?
Read this overview
As you may remember, our working definition of worship for this practice series says that worship is the expression and display of love and devotion to someone or something that is ultimate in a person’s life. But when it comes to God, our display of love and devotion isn’t a means by which we earn our way into his presence or buy his favor. Instead, the love we show God is born out of the fact that he loved us first. And just as nothing we do can ever earn us God’s love (since we already have all of it!), there’s nothing we can do that could ever separate us from God’s love (Romans 8v35-39).
The theological concept of union reminds us that we are in Christ, meaning that because of the goodness of God, we have already been fully brought into the eternal, loving relationship of the Trinity. As Jesus said when he prayed for all believers, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.” (John 17v22-23).
Our relationship with Jesus isn’t based on how well we are doing on a spiritual scale of points, as if we are constantly climbing or descending a ladder, getting closer or further away from God. Rather, because of the blood of Jesus, we have been united with him and now have the assurance that we are free to enter the presence of God with confidence (Hebrews 10v19-22).
Discuss the following prompts
- Why do you think it’s so easy for us to get caught up in a game of points and levels when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, rather than remembering we have already been united with him?
- What are some ways you could remind yourself of the union you have with the loving Trinity? How would these reminders impact your daily walk with Jesus?
Practicing this week
This week, set aside 2-3 times to practice Lectio Divina, a form of contemplative prayer that uses the slow, meditative reading of Scripture to hear from God. For this practice, read Jesus’s prayer for all believers in John 17v20-26.
If this practice is new to you, here is a basic guide to the steps of Lectio Divina:
Read: Slowly and carefully read the text to yourself. Take your time. As you move through the text, pay close attention to what words and ideas draw your attention in unique ways. When your focus is drawn to a particular word or thought, pause momentarily to reflect on it.
Reflect: Upon completing the passage, return to the beginning and read again. On your second time through the text, allow it to connect with you personally. Which words or phrases assume a particular significance in your heart, your season of life, or your relationships? Write these down.
Respond: Talk to God about your experience. If you’re confused, say that. Moved? Express gratitude to God. Upset? Tell him about it. If the text has brought something else to mind, talk to God about that.
Rest: Finish your time by sitting quietly in God’s presence. You might express wonder, awe, gratitude, or praise through words, or you might allow yourself to feel and experience these things in silence before God.
Come ready to share about your experience the next time your Community meets.
Close in prayer
End by having someone read Ephesians 4v1-6 as a prayer over the group.
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.