Session Six
How to Have a Spiritual Home
BIBLE REFERENCES FOR SESSION SIX: PSALMS 23, 127, 139 PHILIPPIANS 4:4-13 COLOSSIANS 3:12-21 I PETER 1:3-9
SUMMARY: When we were children, we believed that physical nakedness would be the most difficult thing to overcome in marriage. We were wrong. It turns out that spiritual nakedness is the greatest barrier every couple has to overcome. To let my spouse see my heart before God is to reveal the most intimate part of my life. Individuals often attempt to hide that portion of their lives sometimes because they have secrets they want to hide. It is one thing if God knows how shallow, weak, afraid, or hypocritical I am; it is another thing if my mate really knows. So, we simply keep the spiritual blinds pulled tightly down.
Those who are transparent before God are also changed by Him. To live before my Creator with humility and reverence, to live with my God in obedience to Him is to restore my own life to wholeness. Anything less produces a lesser me. If I have trouble living in harmony with my Creator, I will also have trouble with most everything else in life. The best marriages have both people running to God and sharing the journey. There are, of course, marriages where that journey is not fully shared. Those marriages can still have love and tenderness, they can still raise their children and be a home; they are just never quite the homes they could be.
Session Six
How to Have a Spiritual Home
THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Session Six
1.
Were there any Wow, that makes sense to me! moments?
2. What does it mean to have a spiritual home vs. just having a home where two Christians live ?
3.
What kind of spiritual home was your family-of-origin?
- How was prayer handled?
- Did you talk about spiritual things?
- Did the talk match the lifestyle?
- Did you learn to read the Scriptures there (so that the Bible came alive and made sense when you read it)?
4.
What does it mean to be transparent when you are praying or talking about spiritual things?
- Are you embarrassed to talk to or about God with your mate?
- Can you talk at a heart level and not just a surface or fact only level?
- If you are embarrassed, what kind of barriers does that create for your marriage?
- How could joint prayer (transparent prayer) join you closer as a couple?
5.
Are there any aspects of your relationship with God that you are reluctant or afraid to share with your spouse?
- For example, admitting sin, asking for forgiveness, praying for others, etc.?
- Have you learned to read the Bible so that it makes sense to you?
- Have you learned to pray in such a way that you are talking to God, or does it feel like you are just going through the motions?
6.
Of course, all of this really comes down to what we believe about God:
- Do you believe Jesus revealed who God is and what He is like?
- Do the two of you see Christ in the same way?
- Do you believe that you can or should walk in faith (trusting Him with your lives)?
- Are you trusting Him with your life?
- Do you believe God can be trusted?
- Does God seem close and personal to you, or does He seem far and distant?
- Do you believe God loves and forgives?
- Do you believe God could love and forgive you? Do you believe He has?
- Do you believe God is the one we will all stand before one day?
- Do you believe God is pleased with you?
- Are you content with the faith you have?
While many aids are available to help individuals answer these questions, www.alifetimelove.com and two books within the Bible would be great starting places. We would encourage you to read Luke and John in the New Testament. These books illustrate how and why the eye-witnesses came to believe in and love Christ. Their testimony will help you find your answers.
7.
When it comes to living out your faith and worship, what would you like your home to look like?
- What do you need to change to bring it about?
- What is the scariest part about that change?
- What do you believe God would have you do?
- What can you start today?
- Where could you get help if you felt like you needed it?