Morning and Evening: Sunday, March 22

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 66

Questions:

1. What do you think the Psalmist means when he or she writes “make [God's] praise glorious”?  How can you do that this morning as you attend worship?
2. According to verse 3, what motivates this kind of worship?  What deeds has God done in your life that motivate your worship?
3. The deeds that the Psalmist recounts in verses 10-12 hardly sound praiseworthy.  Yet verse 10 says that these hardships were God’s way of refining his people.  How can you see the good God is doing even when the times are bad?
4. According to verse 18, when would God not have heard the Psalmist’s prayers?  What sins are you cherishing in your heart that need to be repented so that you are ready to worship God this morning?

Prayer Focus: Pray that God would help you to see the good that he is doing even when times are bad, so that you might recognize the refining process by which he is shaping you into the person he created you to become.

Evening Study:

Evening: Galatians 4:21-5:1

Questions:

1. In this passage, Paul contrasts Abraham’s two sons - Ishmael, his son with the slave woman, and Isaac, his son with is wife Sarah.  The contrast is between trying to live life on our own terms, or trusting in God’s promise.  How do we tend to make our own way in the world rather than trusting what God provides?
2. How does trying to earn our own relationship with God tend to lead to a life of slavery rather than freedom?
3. What command does Paul give in verse 1?  How are we in danger of finding ourselves burdened again by slavery?

Prayer focus: Pray for members of your family or friends who still haven’t found freedom in Christ.  Pray that God would help you to share the good news with them.