Undivided | Week Three

Staying Together Through Offense

With social media, candidates, and news stations vying for your attention, time, and commitment, how can you follow God's lead and stick with the people around you? (Even when you disagree.) Sticking together through today's complex issues can feel impossible, even when you are trying to follow Jesus together.

Jesus invites everyone to come together around Him and His Word. He will help you bring your very best to the people in your life, even when blame, offense, anger, and more try to tear you apart. Sticking together will help you experience God's presence and more joy with the people in your life. Most importantly, the world will see Jesus more clearly when His people work to stay undivided.

This study follows the “Lectio P.R.A.Y. Model” to help you and the people in your life live Undivided. It can be done individually, but it is better to go through it with the people you are walking toward Jesus with.

Pause:

Pause and be still. Breathe slowly. Center yourself in God’s presence for 60 seconds.

Take several slow, deep breaths. As you quiet yourself, acknowledge God’s presence by saying, “God, you are with me.”

When ready, pray:

God, create in me a unified heart. Make me aware of anything in me that is threatening unity from happening around me. Grow my awareness of opportunities to pursue and create unity by the power of your Spirit.

Rejoice and Reflect:

“Lord, my heart is not proud;
    my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
    or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
    like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
    Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
    now and always.

(Psalm 131 NLT)

Pause and pray 

Read the following account from Jesus in Matthew 5:

“You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. (Matthew 5:38-42)

Ask:

  • What do you learn about offense/being offended from this passage?

  • What things cause you to feel offended? When do you find it easiest to be offended?

  • What support do I need to live the words of Jesus from this passage?

Yield:

Return to the passage again. Consider reading it in a different translation. If doing this in a group, have someone different read the passage. Invite God to show you something new as you read the passage a second time:

“You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. (Matthew 5:38-42)

  • What new insight do you gain from reading the passage again?

Pause and pray:

  • ·What prayer is rising up in you in response to today’s reflection? Speak out that prayer with your group or write it down.

 Act:

  • What people or places am I being invited to pray Psalm 131 over? How will my prayers be embodied in my actions?

  • Based on what you’ve heard from God during this reflection time, how will you respond in obedience this week?

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