Introduction & ice breaker
Take a brief self assessment based on Raymond Ramos' talk: Where are you right now? What's going on with you today? Why do you think you are responding like this?
Themes to Consider
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet
The soul is strengthened through experience and trial
CAVE
C - Character
A - Awareness and Acceptance
V - Vision
E - Endurance
Discussion Questions
Someone once said: endurance only begins when motivation ends. What in your life had God asked you to persevere in right now?
Guided Prayer
Father God, we thank you for your grace and your mercy upon our lives. Thank you for this experience that Elijah went through. Thank you that he responded in obedience. He did what you called them to do and he finished well.
So helps us God. Help us fix our minds on your power of the Spirit of the Living God, on your love and compassion. Help us know that your mercies endure, that you love us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, help us to run to you in our weakness, to run to you in our brokenness, to run to you when we're going through our struggles. You are the one that can mold us, shape us, renew us, strengthen us, put us back on the right path, and send us to complete that what you've called us to do. Amen.
Supplemental Content
The season of Epiphany, also called “epiphanytide” is a time after advent which celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi to Jesus in Matthew 2, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles.
We celebrate this season by considering how he has, and still is, revealing himself to us. During this series we will take a look at characters throughout the Bible who had encounters with Jesus, old and New Testament.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. —James 1:2
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. —Romans 5:3
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet Only through experience and trial can the soul is strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved. —Helen Keller
