Church At Home
The Big Idea of this study is that we need to trust God’s action in us. When we focus on ourselves we are bound to fail but when we turn our attention to the Holy Spirit at work in us we find freedom, life and peace.
This week in our text the Apostle Paul gets more specific in telling us about life in the Spirit in contrast to life in the Flesh. When the Spirit is in us, he changes our focus: off of self and on to Jesus. This even creates new thought pathways in our brains and therefore opens new opportunities for us to move away from old thought patterns that once held us hostage.
There is a tremendous difference between the mind governed by the flesh and the mind governed by the Spirit. Life and peace characterize those who set their mind on the Spirit. Anyone who has not welcomed the Spirit into their lives will not understand this. But for those who do, the same Spirit that was alive in Jesus is alive in us and will change us from the inside out. This is his doing and not ours.
If this same Spirit lives in us then we can be assured that just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so he will raise our mortal bodies and we will be forever with him. Physical death does not scare us.
Questions for Discussion:
- If our brains contain so much information, how do we make sure that the Word of God has a prominent place and that it does not simply fade into the subconscious as so many of our past experiences and education?
- Discuss the crises of authority and trust in our culture. In particular discuss this statement. “Unless we place our trust and authority in God the Father our foundation is on shaky grounds.”
- Can you find the promise in verse 10? What is it? There is another promise in verse 11 regarding our mortal (physical) bodies, how are the two promises different?
- If this is all true, then what difference should it make in how we live our everyday lives?