PRAY
Take a moment and be still. Pray as the Lord would lead you: praise Him, confess your sin to Him, thank Him for the grace you have received, and ask of Him according to His will and your desires! Pray that as you read from His word, that the Lord would make His truth clear to you to align your heart with His.
Prayer is a very important part of this time, spending time with the Lord is more than just reading His book: it is a conversation!
READ THIS PASSAGE
1 Corinthians 13:1-3, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
BRIEF COMMENTARY
This is a difficult passage of scripture as it lays low nearly everything we hold to be of value. According to this tex literally anything we do: speaking brilliantly and with conviction, prophesying and having all wisdom and knowledge, having faith so strong you could move a mountain with your words, giving all of your possessions to the poor, and even giving your life becomes absolutely worthless if it is not done in and through love. Next week we will read about what love is, but for this week my question is this: Who are you relying on?
The Love talked about in this passage is a love that can only be expressed when we have our hearts aligned with Christ. To show others the same kind of love Christ has shown us, we must have first been shown that love. According to this text, to attempt anything without Christ’s love as the primary source of motivation and reason makes it worthless, I often feel like a clanging symbol when I speak, and when I feel this way it’s often because I’m trying to impress people with my words. This is a difficult text because it is important that we remind ourselves that though Christ may have givenus our gifts, they remain gifts all the same.
QUESTIONS:
- What are some ways you have used your gifts to serve yourself instead of the Lord?
- When preparing to lead a group through Rush, how can you encourage the people in your group to rely on the Lord when using their gifts?
- What are some ways that you could remind yourself to rely on the Lord as you serve as a leader?