Exodus 15:22-27
Abby Odio, Pastor of Teaching and Formation, abbyo@churchbcc.org
While the wilderness is not an easy place to journey, it is always the ground from which growth happens. Our text for this week offers three critical invitations as we seek God’s transformation in our own story
- We are invited to DETACH
- We are invited to THIRST
- We are invited to HEAL
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
- Begin by watching this <4 minute video from Pastor Jen Manglos on “what is Lent?”
- Read Exodus 15:22-27 aloud
- What does it look like to be in touch with ones “thirst”? When was the last time you were deeply thirsty for something?
- For an introduction to fasting, watch these two video resources together from Pastor Prentice Park.
- What is Fasting? (5 mins)
- How to Fast (4 mins)
- What have you learned this week about detaching/fasting?
- Pastor Abby mentions the practice of fasting as a way to open up space, or bring awareness to your own thirst, to then fill with prayer. Or in other words, she quotes pastor Barbara Brown Taylor, in summary naming “that to enter the wilderness is to leave your pacifiers behind, whatever they may be”.
- What are your substitutions, what pacifiers are you using?
- How would it look like for the next several days to detach or fast from your substitute and trust there is holy ground beyond it?
- What role has prayer played in your life?
- Assign prayer partner pairs within the group.
- Give the task of paying attention to how often your mind travels in the direction of what you commit to detach from. Ask yourself why it happens when it happens and share what you notice with your prayer partner between group meetings.
- Consider practicing calling out to “Abba, Father” when you find your mind wandering and look for how he meets you. Share that with your prayer partner as well!
- Often our notions of healing are attached to a change in circumstances.
- In what ways can we see that God’s healing of Israel is not circumstantial, but relational; and how does that apply to how he heals in present day?
- What risk comes with forgetting life is to be found not in where we are, but in who we are attached to?
- How might you like to step closer in proximity to God these next six weeks?