Each Saturday during Lent, we will take some time as a church family to practice a different spiritual exercise together. Today, we are practicing and learning about jubilee.
Definition:
As we have read this week, at its core, jubilee is a call to forgive, absolve debts, restore relationships, and give the land a rest as we live into what we anticipate in the future eschaton. Because of this anticipation, we can take pleasure in God and the radically generous nature of God’s people, Word, world, and purposes. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 4:32; Zephaniah 3:17; Romans 8:20-21).
Reflection Questions:
- Where are you most prone to celebrate God? Alone? With others? In worship? In music? In nature? What does this tell you about how God made you and how you most naturally meet with Him?
- Is there a heaviness about you, an overly serious side or an entrenched critical spirit? How might forgiving others and celebrating God affect these traits and move you into new areas of transformation?
- When has it been hard for you to forgive someone? What is it like for you to receive forgiveness that mends a relationship? Where are you most longing for things to be made new in your life?
- How does God view your use of natural resources and your due diligence in taking care of the world He created? Where have you taken for granted God’s good gift of creation? What is He asking of you?
Spiritual Exercises:
- Consider how God loves you. Read Zephaniah 3:17, then be still and listen. How is God celebrating you? Celebrate the God who celebrates you. Intentionally ask for the gift of appreciating yourself the way God does.
- Talk to someone who has lived the reality of forgiving those that hurt them. Where did they get the courage, will, and power to forgive?
- In your imagination, sit at the foot of the Cross as Jesus is dying. Watch Him holding the abuse, rage, and sin of the whole world. Watch how He does not turn it back on those who deserve it. What does this mean to you in your relationships? What step do you need to take?
- Take a walk in God’s beautiful world. What characteristics of God are revealed in His
Led by Pastor Nic Fridenmaker
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