But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds
may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor 11:3
IT’S ALL ABOUT CONNECTIONS
When we started our lessons, we talked about connections:
The first step to fully surrendering to God and being in His will is establishing a connection to Him through His Son Jesus Christ and then strengthening that connection. We discovered that scripture and prayer are the keys to accomplishing this:
Even when we establish a strong connection to God by doing these things out of obedience to Him, we still have that pesky connection to the world to deal with. It is a problem because:
EYES ON GOD!
As we develop a stronger connection with God, there will be forces trying to damage or block our ability to hear what God has to say to us. Our responsibility at this point is to continue to strengthen and protect our connection with God, and to greatly reduce and eventually break the hold that the world has on us. Fortunately it is not up to us to accomplish this. As usual, God is ready to help us and guide us if we are ready to hand the task over to Him. So we are not talking about taking things into our own hands; we are not talking about a lot of effort or striving on our part—our responsibility is:
- to continue to keep our eyes on God through the prayer tools we have learned.
- to make it our sincere desire and intention to eliminate the hold that the world has on us.
- to ask God to do whatever it takes to accomplish this.
- to cooperate with Him by fully surrendering to His will as He works to bring this about.
DISCUSSION QUESTION
What are some specific ways that our connection with the world distracts us from keeping our eyes on God and staying in His will?
SCRIPTURE MEMORY VERSE
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor 11:3
Let's Pray - Surrender Trilogy as a Journey in Faith
When we started our lessons, we talked about connections:
- The strong connection we have to the world – like a large cable.
- The very weak connection we have to God when we first accept Christ – like a single copper wire.
The first step to fully surrendering to God and being in His will is establishing a connection to Him through His Son Jesus Christ and then strengthening that connection. We discovered that scripture and prayer are the keys to accomplishing this:
- Praying Continually
- Memorizing Scripture
- Praying God’s Word
- Linked Prayer
- Prayers of Surrender
- Listening Prayer
Even when we establish a strong connection to God by doing these things out of obedience to Him, we still have that pesky connection to the world to deal with. It is a problem because:
- The input from the world is constant and pervasive.
- It causes interference and makes it hard to listen to God and clearly hear His voice.
- It is often in direct conflict with what God is telling us.
- It provides many temptations to do things contrary to God’s commands.
EYES ON GOD!
As we develop a stronger connection with God, there will be forces trying to damage or block our ability to hear what God has to say to us. Our responsibility at this point is to continue to strengthen and protect our connection with God, and to greatly reduce and eventually break the hold that the world has on us. Fortunately it is not up to us to accomplish this. As usual, God is ready to help us and guide us if we are ready to hand the task over to Him. So we are not talking about taking things into our own hands; we are not talking about a lot of effort or striving on our part—our responsibility is:
- to continue to keep our eyes on God through the prayer tools we have learned.
- to make it our sincere desire and intention to eliminate the hold that the world has on us.
- to ask God to do whatever it takes to accomplish this.
- to cooperate with Him by fully surrendering to His will as He works to bring this about.
DISCUSSION QUESTION
What are some specific ways that our connection with the world distracts us from keeping our eyes on God and staying in His will?
SCRIPTURE MEMORY VERSE
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor 11:3
Let's Pray - Surrender Trilogy as a Journey in Faith