Welcome to Week Three!
We are created by the Father, saved by Jesus, and guided by the Holy Spirit – all because God loves us. We do not deserve these gifts at all!
This free and unconditional love from God deserves a response from all of us, and that response is to live a life of worship.
Remember to write down any questions that come up to share with your mentor group.
Week Three
PRAY: Spend a few moments in silence before asking God to open your heart and mind to His presence as you jump into the journey devotions this week.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What do you picture when you think of worship?
- What might it mean to live a life of worship?
READ: In your Bible, or below, read Luke 10:25–28.
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as
yourself.”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What does this passage tell us about worship?
- What might it look like to worship with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind?
- Do you find it easier to love God with one (heart, soul, strength or mind) more than the others? Which one and how come?
REFLECT: So often we pigeonhole worship as simply singing praise songs or going to church on the weekend.
We are called, however, to view worship as much more than that! We are called to offer our lives as worship, loving God with all that we are and do.
The framework of loving the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, and strength is a great way to guide us to live a life of worship!
PRAY: Close your time in prayer by watching and praying through the Worship Devotional Video.
PRAY: Begin your time in prayer to God, asking Him to help you understand what it means to love Him and worship Him with all of your heart.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below.
- Make a list of people/things you can honestly say you love with all of your heart.
- Looking over that list, how do those people/things influence the way you live your life?
READ: In your Bible, or HERE, read Mark 4:1–20, The Parable of the Sower.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What does this passage tell us about worship?
- In which type of soil have you been planting your seeds? Explain.
- How can you start to invest your heart into loving the things that God loves?
REFLECT: Loving God with all of our hearts is a calling for us to open our hearts to what God wants us to see and hear from His Word.
When we begin to let God speak into our lives, we get a sense for where God wants us to direct and invest our hearts.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- How is God calling you to a “change of heart” this semester?
PRAY: Close your time asking God to transform your heart to be more like His! Ask Him to give you the strength to work on your heart each day.
PRAY: Begin your time in prayer to God, asking Him to help you understand what it means to love Him and worship Him with all of your soul.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What do you think it means to love God with all of your soul?
READ: In your Bible, or below, read Matthew 16:24–28.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what they have done.
Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What stands out to you from the passage? What confuses you?
- What does it mean to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus?
- How can you humble yourself to follow Jesus’ lead in your life?
- Who are examples of people in your life who are living examples of humility to God?
REFLECT: We often feel that tug-of-war within our souls between choosing to follow the light or the darkness (see John 1:1–5 for more on that!).
God has a desire for us, His children, to always seek after the light. The problem is we make our own personal desires out to be more important than God’s desires for us.
Our challenge is to continually deny ourselves in order to follow Jesus.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below.
- How is God calling you to deny yourself this semester?
- Where might you need help to deny yourself? Where do you find it difficult to do so?
PRAY: Spend some time reflecting on this in God’s presence. Ask Him to help reveal to you where you may need to deny yourself today and for the strength to do so!
PRAY: Begin your time in prayer to God, asking Him to help you understand what it means to love Him and worship Him with all of your strength.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What do you think it means to love God with all of your strength?
- How might our bodies be important in our faith?
READ: In your Bible, or below, read 1 Corinthians 3:16–17.
Don't you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below:
- What is the role of a church/temple?
- If our bodies are temples, what does that mean the purpose of our bodies should be?
- How can we use our strength as a tool for faith?
- Why is it important to treat our bodies like temples?
REFLECT: For thousands of years, Christ–followers have been incorrectly separating their physical beings from their spiritual lives.
The fact that Jesus was human shows us that our human bodies are important to our faith!
We need to treat our bodies like temples for God and maintain them in order to take action in our faith.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompt below:
- Where is God calling you to take action in your faith?
PRAY: Spend some time talking to God, ask Him to help you have a new perspective of the importance of your physical nature and how to love Him with all of your strength.
PRAY: Begin your time in prayer to God, asking Him to help you understand what it means to love Him and worship Him with all of your mind.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below.
- What might it look like to love God with all of your mind?
- How is loving God with your mind different than your heart or soul?
READ: In your Bible, or below, read Romans 12:1–2.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God –
This is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below.
- How does the mind play a role in your faith? (knowledge, thought, logic, etc.)
- What would a “renewing of your mind” look like?
- How might Jesus play a role in the renewing of our minds?
REFLECT: God made our minds to be extraordinarily powerful.
We use them to process information about ourselves, our relationships, and our world in order to navigate life.
Sometimes, when we allow our minds to be focused on things other than God, we stray off the path in the journey of faith.
WRITE: In your journal, respond to the prompts below.
- How do you need to be more like–minded with Christ?
- Looking back over this week, what have you learned about living a life of worship?
- How do you plan to live out this life of worship this week?
PRAY: In your prayer, ask God to show you the ways you can really live out a life of worship.
