Arrival – An Advent Series on Waiting and Believing: Longing & Believing (12.13.21)
Processing and responding to the Sunday sermon
Opening Prayer
After the group welcomes one another, have one person open in prayer and then take 2-3 minutes of silence. As you sit in silence, ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart in love toward God and your group mates.
Elizabeth & a Promise-Keeping God
During our third Sunday of Advent, Melissa preached on the faith of Elizabeth, connecting the dots between this New Testament story and its Old Testament predecessors.
Elizabeth’s story in Luke 1 testifies to the nature of our promise keeping God. Not only is God faithful to keep His promises to Elizabeth, He also is faithful to a number of women in the Old Testament who He promised would be pregnant—in spite of doubts, age, fears, control, and so on.
At the core of it, Elizabeth’s story helps us see the value of longing and desire—how much God meets us in the diversity of our longings. .
Reflection and Discussion
Read Luke 1 and then prayerfully and silently reflect on the passage and these questions.
- How do you see Elizabeth’s longing in this passage, and how does God interact with her longing?
- What are some of the longings or desires in your life? What do you believe God wants you to know about how He’s relating to you in your desire?
- God may not fulfill His promises as humans might expect. When are times you’ve experienced God answer prayers or keeping promises in unexpected ways?
After silently reflecting, take these thoughts into a time of group discussion.
- After reflecting, what’s standing out to you as intriguing or surprising about God’s promise keeping nature?
- What are some longings or desires you have that you find yourself in tension with God about? How do you think He might be at work in your unfulfilled longing?
Closing Intercession
Pray for your group, our church, our city, and our world.