Where has Jesus shown His work around you this week?  How did it increase your hope?

 

Jesus said the whole of Scripture points to him (Luke 24:27). Before today how did you tend to read Old Testament stories like David's; as moral examples ("be brave like David"), or as stories pointing toward someone greater? How might that shift change the way you read your Bible this week?

 

Christ is like David in his divinity (anointed by God, given an eternal throne) but unlike David in his humanity (sinless, unshaken, undying). Why does it matter that Jesus is both genuinely like David and genuinely unlike him? What would be lost if he were only one or the other?

 

Israel asked for a king "like the nations" because they were tired and afraid, but Samuel warned it would cost them dearly (1 Sam 8:11-18). Saul was chosen for exactly what the nations valued (his height, his appearance) and it wasn't enough. Where do you find yourself asking God for the kind of solution "everyone else" seems to have, instead of trusting what he is actually offering you?

 

Read 1 Sam. 1 Samuel 16:14 tells us the Spirit departed from Saul while he continued sitting on the throne — still king in title but no longer operating in God's power. Where might you be "going through the motions" of following Jesus without genuinely relying on the Spirit's power to do it? Be specific.

 

The Bible says that the King, the Spirit, and the Shepherd can be trusted with your whole life. Psalm 23 pictures that trust as resting even in the valley, not just the pasture. What is one area of your life right now where trusting Christ's leadership feels more like a valley than a green pasture and what would it look like to bring that specific area to him this week?

 

Around a TABLE:

  • Question: Where have you felt most afraid this week, ie. afraid you're not enough, afraid you're being overlooked, or afraid God might walk away from you the way the Spirit left Saul?
  • Promise: In Christ, God's presence isn't contingent the way it was for Saul. His presence and power are permanent. He has promised never to leave or forsake you and has given you his Spirit to confirm and empower that truth.
  • Passage: Psalm 23:4 — "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me."