If you haven't yet, watch this week's video here In a comment at the bottom of the page, answer some or all of the questions below: (Some of this content is taken from the study guide. For more in-depth personal study download the study guide here: STUDY GUIDE ) Psalm 23:2
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. As Matt pointed out in the session, God invites us to follow him out of drought and weariness and in to spaces of rest. It’s a perpetual invitation because our need for rest ebbs and flows throughout life, but it will always remain a need this side of glory. What does your land of drought look like? Where do you find yourself facing weariness? What causes that exhaustion? What are some ways that you have sought rest outside of the Lord as a response to your exhaustion, either today or at some point in the past? How are those pursuits unable to give you the rest you are looking for? John 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. How does Jesus provide the rest we are looking for? How have you seen this in your life? How do you need to pursue it today?
23 Comments
Toni Muller
3/30/2020 08:38:53 pm
This lesson really hit home for me. I had tears in my eyes because Matt obviously "gets" how exhausted we can feel in this life. And because he clearly presents how Jesus is the one who leads us out of the drought/weariness/exhaustion. I had never heard "green pastures" explained in that context.
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3/31/2020 07:32:11 am
To your post I believe that Paul wrote of this very thing by the unction of the Holy Spirit in Romans 7. Paul's conclusion was not as Solomon's in Ecclesiastes but was "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 7:24-25a. And later writing in 2 Timothy 1:12b "for I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
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3/31/2020 03:03:14 pm
Thank you, dear sister, for sharing your life and your challenges! You have always been such an encouragement to me. May our dear Savior continue to give you rest and repose as He supplies your every need. Aren't we so blessed to have His Word!
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Renee Stebbeds
4/4/2020 12:20:06 pm
Toni, thank you for sharing. I so relate to and was ministered to by your response.
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Eric Rossman
4/6/2020 12:50:28 am
"Sometimes I can point to specific verses, thoughts or promises that are brought to my conscious mind, but it is the application of these by the Spirit that brings rest and comfort deep in the heart. Because of this, I need to pursue His rest by open, honest prayer and being in the Word "
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3/31/2020 07:18:47 am
Question 1 [3 parts]: "Brethern, I count not myself to have apprehended: but (this) one thing (I do), forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14
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Joyce Lanz
3/31/2020 11:44:58 am
Jesus said, I am the way so He who says I am the way also knows the perfect way to lead me to those still waters where my journey ends in heaven. The drought and turbulence takes place in my life when I start indulging myself in the affairs of the world and see iniquity gone rampant. It is during those moments I become perturbed, afraid, angry and resentful, SCARED at the affairs of the world and atmosphere I live in and forget that there is no place dark enough and no wall thick enough where God's grace cannot reach.
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4/4/2020 08:19:05 pm
So true, dear sister! When I have pasted myself to the news for way too long and seen so much of the wreckage from the fall of man, it can take me into so many different emotional places, but never into rest. I'm working on just getting some information and then praying over it, asking the Lord to be glorified and exercise His grace, mercy, patience, and lovingkindness to bring many more souls into His kingdom as a result of what He has, in His wisdom permitted. Thank you so much for sharing your heart!
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3/31/2020 03:00:48 pm
1. Both Steve and I have come from performance based backgrounds. Steve was raised in the Catholic Church and was always trying to 'be perfect' and I didn't grow up in the church but was expected to get straight A's to gain the approval and attention of my parents. We brought this weariness into our our relationship with our Great Shepherd and unfortunately did not get the kind of teaching that effectively refuted these ideas. We have been so blessed to be here at EBF where we have been grazing and drinking freely and finding freedom and rest!
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Eric Rossman
4/6/2020 12:56:51 am
Thanks for sharing guys. I find it helpful when you share your different performance backgrounds. I think everyone has one. For example, I grew up outside the church and I also didn't have the pressure of getting straight A's or anything. But where I do see the pressure looking back was one of personality. My brother was really funny and had a lot of friends, and I think I always felt that pressure to be funny and outgoing and keep that up. Though I was good at it to a certain degree, I also found myself dreading times were people expected me to entertain them.
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Stephanie Bolme
4/1/2020 11:25:03 am
To me resting in the Lord doesn’t mean storms don’t come. It means He holds us until the storm ends. He began to teach me this during my first marriage, which was abusive in many ways. This was a period of deep exhaustion, because I saw no way out. I didn’t want to fail my Lord and my daughter and end the marriage. I knew I couldn’t end my own life, as appealing as that seemed at times. I tried to find my rest in avid running and spending hours at my piano writing songs. (Being a storyteller by nature, I had narratives of being a world class marathoner and revered singer/songwriter running through my head. :D) All these things did was provide a temporary distraction from the storm. It was when the Lord finally brought me to a point of complete surrender to Him that I found the rest I so desperately needed in a storm that was about to get a lot worse.
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4/1/2020 11:40:38 am
Thank you for your amazing perspective, Stephanie! One of the things I have really appreciated about this Bible study is that I have learned things about my precious brothers and sisters which I never knew before. It is the Lord's gift to us that He is using other means of connecting while we are physically separated. It is so encouraging to read the stories of others' struggles and how the Lord's faithfulness has been so evident in the midst of the trial.
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karan
4/5/2020 07:05:02 pm
"...He holds us until the storm ends." I love this thought. Well said. "It was when the Lord finally brought me to a point of complete surrender to Him that I found the rest I so desperately needed...
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Jessie Litchfield
4/1/2020 11:25:42 am
My “land of drought” is a place of anxiety and fear.
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4/1/2020 11:35:40 am
Thank you so much for sharing your struggles, Jessie! I remember being a homeschooling mom and thinking our family had to look a certain way to really be acceptable to the Lord. I felt that, if I didn't do everything just right, my children would not grow up to be Christians and it would be my fault. I'm so grateful for the Lord's patience and kindness toward me! I realized that much of my labor was done out of fear of being alone, as I had felt very alone growing up in our family. When everything fell apart during the high school years, I was asking the Lord why and He made it clear to me that He had to pull it all down, so I would know I was not and never had been alone! Wow! I still battle the performance idol, but I have so many more tools to bring to the struggle and Jesus is just so faithful! Thank you again for your transparency.
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Karan
4/3/2020 08:43:25 am
"It’s a constant reorientation from my effort to finding rest in the Lord and what he’s provided."
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Renee Stebbeds
4/4/2020 12:25:22 pm
Jessie, I so relate to your “works based” feelings....
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Carolyn Rust
4/4/2020 08:31:01 am
The weariness I feel always comes from working under my own power. The dry and barren land that surrounds me is ever present so I close my eyes and just do what is expected. I don't notice when our good shepherd moves me into the green pastures until I look on Him and hear his voice.
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Renee Stebbeds
4/4/2020 12:22:16 pm
Amen, Carolyn.
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Eric Rossman
4/6/2020 12:59:54 am
Thank Carolyn. I love when Jesus brings things to mind at just the right time for us to see how we need to find rest in him.
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What does your land of drought look like? Where do you find yourself facing weariness? What causes that exhaustion?
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4/4/2020 08:24:35 pm
I so relate, my sister! And worry is soooo exhausting! Second guessing and trying to help and then things so often just get worse! I have been through times when I can imagine the Lord saying to me, "I was building a road into that situation, and you have just caused a giant log to lie across it!" I'm so grateful that I am His lamb, of whom He is not ashamed and that He never gets tired of picking me up, putting me on His shoulders and carrying me, when necessary to a place of rest. Thank you for your helpful post!
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sheri
4/5/2020 04:13:17 pm
My land of drought will look dry and empty. When I stop the discipline of being with Him in His Word and prayer time daily, I get thirsty. If I do not drink from Him, then the land is not only dry, it gets wrinkles and no fruit grows. I find myself facing weariness when I am waiting on the Lord. I know He is working, I just get impatient and that causes despair. BUT He is always faithful to change my perspective and increase my faith. The weariness comes from my sin of unbelief. I turn to leaning on my own understanding and strength in that weariness, I get sad and frustrated and then that leads to unbelief. I know where to turn, thank you Jesus, and He is always faithful, of course. I just wish I would stop doing that and rest fully in Him always...always!!!
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