Romans 8:12-39

 
Series Setup

Food for Thought

  • What makes you feel cared for? (EX: “When someone says ___ / does ___ / gives me ____.”)

    • What about that makes you feel cared for?

  • How does God make you feel cared for? How do you experience his care? How does he minister to you in real ways?

    • If that’s a hard question to answer, why is it a hard question to answer?

    • Are there times or areas of your life in which it’s hard to believe God cares for you?

  • Read the focal passage. Whether or not we feel it, what are some ways God uses his power to help us?

    • Are any of those new or surprising to you?

    • What’s our role (if any!) in receiving, experiencing, or enjoying God’s care in those ways?

    • What role does waiting play in that?

    • God cares for us in the midst of suffering, evil, and sin. But does the existence or experience of those things get in the way of you receiving that care? (EX: Do you ever think, “If God really cared for me, he wouldn’t have let ____ happen?”) Why or why not?

      • How might this challenge and/or change our expectations so that we can better receive the real care of God in the real world?

  • What leads you to feel powerless to care for people at times? (EX: Experience? Knowledge? Inability to change a situation, person, or them?)

    • So what do you do when an opportunity to care arises? Ignore it? Power through? Make stuff up?

    • How do the gospel’s promises and the Holy Spirit’s work empower us to care for one another better, even in light of our own limits?

      • Specifically, how are prayer, truth, and gospel hope among the most helpful things we can offer?

 
EcclesiastesScott O'Donohoe