Getting Started:
Q: What’s the best gift you’ve ever recieved?
RE-READ: Matthew 7:9-11 NLT
“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
What does this passage say about the character of God?
DISCUSS:
What comes in your mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you
READ: Genesis 45:3-8; 50:19-20 NLT
“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.”
“Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
How do these passages effect the way you think about your prayer requests?
Have you ever felt like you were “living in the gap” between something that happened to you and any good that could come from it?
Have you been on the other side, where you can look back at a bad situation and see where God has brought good things from it?
god’s heart is connected to your heart, and it cannot be disconnected:
God can’t stop loving you
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Pray together for strength and wisdom in navigating the circumstances of your life in light of the good God is weaving together for you