Chestnut Ridge Church
Tim Haring-
We all experience fear.
Perhaps it's a fear of heights or a fear of flying. Maybe it's a fear of spiders or a fear of failure. God gave us the ability to be afraid. It can protect us from harm, but it can also be debilitating, and it can keep us from experiencing life.
This series focuses on four people from the Old Testament who faced their fears as they eventually learned to trust God.
Music from today
Drive, [Adam Etris (Special Vocal)], Love Came Down, Set Apart, I Can't Believe, Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) [Adam Etris (Lead Vocal), Nicki Etris (Background Vocal)]
SCAREDY-CATS: Part 3 [October 8/9, 2016] Tim Haring
Fear can lead to sleepless nights, and sometimes we need to wrestle with God in prayer. When we do so, he is impacted by our persistence. Often, we are the ones who are changed in the process, meaning prayer doesn't just change our circumstances, it changes us.
Genesis 27:28-29 HCSB
Genesis 27:39-40 HCSB
Genesis 31:3 HCSB
Genesis 32:9-12 HCSB
Genesis 32:24-32 HCSB
Sometimes we need to wrestle with God in prayer.
The first week of the series the point was that when we are afraid, we need to…
1. Give God a chance to be faithful to his promises.
The second week, the point was:
2. We need to remember God has been faithful to us in the past so that we will trust him for the future.
Today, our point is:
3. Sometimes we need to wrestle with God in prayer
Genesis 32:26 HCSB
Matthew 7:7 HCSB
Genesis 33:4 HCSB
Sometimes we need to wrestle with God in prayer.
Discussion Questions:
1. Have you ever been kept awake at night because of fears or worries that you had? What kinds of issues have kept you up?
2. Have you found that it’s more difficult to work through various issues at night than it is during the day? Why do you think this might be the case?
3. Is there anything you do when you wake up in the middle of the night that helps you deal with your fears or worries?
4. God told Jacob to return home after he had been away for 20 years. He was very afraid his brother would take revenge on him for an incident that had happened 20 years earlier. Read Genesis 32:9-12. What can we learn from Jacob’s prayer about how to face our fears?
5. In Genesis 32:24-32, we read about Jacob wrestling with God. Assuming that this story illustrates the idea of wresting with God in prayer, what insights might we draw from it that can be applied to our lives?
6. Read Matthew 7:7-8. Although God already knows what we need before we ask him, we are still told to persevere in prayer. Why do you think God wants us to do this? Why doesn’t God just give us what we need before we ask?
7. How might you apply tonight’s lesson to your life?