Secrecy

secrecy.mp4

PRAY:

Have someone read 1 Peter 4:8 aloud. After you read it, spend a minute or two silently reflecting on the passage. Then spend some time praying as a group for anything that 1 Peter 4:8 draws to your mind or stirs up in your heart.

ONE ANOTHERING:

Try to think of some practical needs you can share to give others the opportunity to step up and love you. It's okay if it takes some time to get comfortable with this. It takes time and practice to be vulnerable with one another... but amazing things happen when we are. Remember that the Benevolence Ministry is a resource for our comGroups.

  • How can we love or serve one another this week?

SHARE:

  • Share a time that you were shown an act of kindness by someone.
  • With what person or group do you feel most accepted, most able to be yourself? What is it about this person or group that makes you feel this way?
  • Read Matthew 6:1-6. Allow time for observations and dialogue about the passage.
  • Where do you feel like you most need to perform or impress to be accepted?
  • Where might you be unintentionally (or intentionally) causing others to feel the need to perform to be accepted?
  • On Sunday, Pastor Heath mentioned the important other, a person or group whose voice tells you who you need to be to be accepted. If you’re comfortable sharing, whose voice are you hearing? What might God say to you in response?
  • Why do you think we crave approval from other people? Does God’s approval seem more rewarding than the approval of the people around you? Why or why not?
  • When have you felt most accepted by God?

PRACTICE:

How do we practice secrecy?


  • Pick someone (or create a prayer list) to pray for on a regular basis and don’t tell them of your labors in prayer.
  • Ruthlessly eliminate boasting from your social media posts. Resist posting every new thing God is teaching you, don’t repost compliments, and be on guard against presenting a falsely manicured persona.
  • Give generously to a charitable organization and tell no one about it.
  • Look for inconspicuous, behind the scenes ways to serve others.
  • Listen more than you speak (in a multitude of words, our tendency is to boast more often than we are aware of).
  • Examine your giving, prayer, and other practices of grace. Do you do them so that others might be impressed? Ask yourself, “Would I do these things if others didn’t know that I did them?
  • Don’t advertise your spiritual practices!