He Makes Me Lie Down in Green Pastures, He Leads Me Beside Still Waters,

He Restores My Soul

Isaiah 49:8-12 & Matthew 6:25-33

“Lent is the perfect time for allowing ourselves to stay with reality, to see things clearly, as fragile as they have always been. There’s a reason that monks make a vow of stability, a promise to stay in the monastery they have joined rather than go off in search of a better one. And that is because when you stay in one place, you find out your own habitual inner escape-routes. As my Dad likes to remind me, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’”

(Kate Bowler, Lenten reflection from Thursday, February 25)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life”

-What do you worry about?

-How good are you about naming that worry to yourself? To God?

-What are your “escape-routes” from facing your worries?

-How might you respond to God’s call to lie down in green pastures?

            -In what ways can you practice giving your worries up to God?

-How might you take last week’s practice of filling your mind with God and expand it to times of anxiety and fear?

“But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness”

            -How much of what you worry about is specific to the world? (food, clothes, house, job…)

            -What things of God’s kingdom do you worry about?

-How might you take the underlying care in these worries and direct them to kingdom work? (for example, if you worry about the stability of your job, or the lack of affordable housing in Nanaimo, how might you serve as God’s servant in addressing these?)

“I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people”

            -What do you think God means here?

            -What might be different about how we are a covenant to the people today? What is the same?

            -In your life, particularly in times of anxiety, how are you striving to live as a covenant?

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul

-After thinking about this verse in light of Isaiah 49 and Matthew 6, what is clarifying for you about this psalm?

-What is challenging?

The Lord is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want

Philippians 4:4-20

“In other words, I’m in the care of someone else. I’m not the one in charge. I’ve taken my kingdom and surrendered it to the kingdom of God. I am living the with-God life. The Lord is my shepherd. And what follows from that? I shall not want. That’s the natural result. I shall not lack anything. That’s what Jesus teaches, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,’ and everything else will be added (Matt. 6:33).”

(Willard, Dallas. Life Without Lack: xvii)

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

            -What do you want? Have you shared that with God?

            -Why might it be important to bring your desires to God even if you think he might not fulfill them?

            -How do you structure your prayer time? Do you include petition, praise, and thanksgiving?

            -How might you try out new structures to your prayer time to help build your sense of gratitude?

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

-Where do you find your mind dwelling most of the time? Is on what is good, what is tempting, what you have, what you are lacking…?

-What practices do you do to hold the grace of God forefront in your mind at all times?

-How might you use this season of Lent to practice a deeper awareness of what you think about?

Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have?

            -How content would you say you are right now?

            -What might you do to practice contentedness?

            -How might CCC help you learn to be content?

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

            -Paul says “do” not “have” all things. In your own life, what has God’s grace empowered you to do?
            -How do we draw on God’s strength?

And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

            -Reflect together on how easy it is for you to differentiate wants from needs.

            -God does not promise that he will meet every need in this life, but in the life eternal.

            How do you cling to the promise in the midst of pain and suffering in this life?

       -Imagine you are asked to explain how God provides for believers to someone who does not yet have a relationship with Jesus. What would you say?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

-After thinking about this verse in light of Philippians 4:4-20, what is clarifying for you about this psalm?

-What is challenging?

You are invited to work throughout Lent to memorize Psalm 23 and add reciting it to your daily time with God.