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CHAT
Re read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Do you spend much time thinking about the bigger story that God is writing in our world and your role in it? Why or Why not?
Are there times when God has asked you to share His story with someone you know and you have been too scared? What happened?
Why do you think God wants to use you in sharing His story with your friends? How does that make you feel?
What would be the best and worst case scenario if you shared Jesus with one of your friends? Do you think it would be worth it?
What are a few ways that your family and/ or friendship group would be different if we followed Gods story for our lives more closely?
PRAY
Use your tablet, computer or phone and go to a popular news website. This could be a national one or one for your local area. If you don’t know where to go, maybe just search ‘todays news’.
Spend a few moments browsing through some of the headlines, you might want to do this for your town, country or for the world news. As you look through pay attention to what stands out to you or makes you feel happy, sad or worried.
When you find a topic spend a few moments reading the article and then ask God to show you the story that we as humanity are writing in our world through what is happening in that story. Then, ask God to show you the story that he would like written in the world based on that story, for example, how could humanity love each other more, pursue justice more, love the poor more or be more forgiving in the story that you have read.
Take some time to pray for those things in that story, and that God might use that thing that is going on to tell His story in this world. You could pray for the people and individuals involved that they will come to know Him and start to write a different story, God’s story, in that situation.
DO
One of the things that we have begun to think about this week, and will think about more next week, is that God writes His story through the lives of individuals and that is one of the key reasons that we share Jesus with our friends, because we want their story to be in line with the story that God has for them.
Get a pen and piece of paper and write a close friends name in the middle who doesn’t know Jesus yet (you could draw them if you’re feeling creative!).
Down the left hand side of the paper write a list of the things that are going on in their life that you think God would not want to be a part of their story. This might be things like anxiety, loneliness, insecurity, hurt by mum or dad, pressure to do well in exams, unhealthy relationships, anger, unforgiveness.
On the right hand side of the paper, write a list of the things that God might want to write into their story in place of the things that you have written. For example, if you have written ‘anxiety’ God would want to bring ‘peace’ into their story, or if you wrote ‘hurt by dad’ God might want them to know ‘There is a Father who loves them’.
Once you have done this, spend a few minutes thinking about how their story might be different if they came to know Jesus and let God’s story for them change their life. You may then want to spend a few minutes praying into these things and praying that they come to know Jesus.
Want more sessions like this one?
(make sure you tick the ‘Church Youth Work’ interest box).