Monday night Bible study

When I had my kitchen finished, it was such a peaceful , spacious (comparatively) space.  I remember praying about the desire to have a women's Bible study around the kitchen table.  In my past it seems that my situations have not been conducive to having friends over for varied reasons.  

I wanted to start a study of the book of Job because I was having so many health issues.  I thought I would learn about patience:)

I put out feelers to 6 of my friends.  One is pretty busy , one has family responsibilities right now, and one lives a bit too far to make the drive.  But three other friends said yes.  

We decided to start every week and just read a portion of Job together, look at some commentaries.  We also have a book called Portraits of Perseverance we refer to. I thought we would probably go to every other week, or even monthly.  But meeting together to delve into God's Word, share prayer requests, laugh, confess has been a weekly blessing for 15 weeks now!  We are not learning about patience yet.  We have learned that 

1). Things are not always as they appear to be.

2)  God knows how things are.

3). God is to be loved , honored, revered, respected and trusted.

4) Bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people.  This earth is not heaven. 

5). It is okay to grieve profusely.

6). Sometimes we will not understand but we can always trust God.

7). Being a good friend is important.  Finding a good friend is hard. 

8) The Bible has a lot to teach us of how to relate to each other with love.

9). Sometimes the best course of action is silence..

10). Rather than telling people your opinions, point them to what God says about an issue, problem or concern

11). Praying for your friends is the very best thing you can do for them

12) In an abundance of words, there is more opportunity to mess up :)

13). No friend is often better than a friend who thinks they are better than you, accuses you falsely, or hits you when you are down. 

14) You can still pray for these "friends"...just don't take everything they say to heart.  Take Jesus to your heart.

15) we should accept both the bad and the good in life with praise to God.  It's hard.  You're going to need His help with this.

16)  God is God all the time and He is sovereign and He cares for us. 

17). We can learn to be better friends by studying Job.

18) True wisdom comes from God, not man (or other women).  See what He says in the Bible 

19). We can pray for each other and love each other.  

20) To be a good friend we have to not stay on the surface but go deeper into God's Word, and go deeper into understanding others' feelings.

21). God is not ever through with us when we give ourselves to Him. He is faithful.

I love our Mondays!