DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
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LEADER’S NOTES: In this season we are addressing how only God’s love can reach deeply enough into our souls to restore our lives. This is the place where we begin finding confidence and strength to love God and to love others as we love ourselves because we have learned to love ourselves.
THE POINT: God’s love unlocks our lives. We are taking two weeks here to focus on the power of forgiveness and the dangers of unforgiveness.
Col 2:13-15 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. NIV
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1. What stands out from these verses to you?
Clearly we have been forgiven.
Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. NIV
Clearly God’s Word teaches us to forgive others as an expression of thanking God for forgiving us.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
2. Why do you think it is difficult to forgive those who hurt you?
3. Respond to the Lewis Smedes quote: “When you refuse to forgive, you are giving the person who walloped you once the privilege of hurting you all over again—in your memory.” Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
4. How could extending forgiveness heal a relationship? How might it heal the other person? How might it heal you?
5. Share an example from your own experience when refusing to forgive hurt you.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Think of someone who has wronged you and pray for them each day this week.
(This is a great question to find out what God is speaking to your group overall.)
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
6. What is something God has been speaking to you or revealing in Scripture recently