Before you begin, consider one thing you have gratitude for right now. Treasure it: Spend at least 15 seconds meditating on this one thing.
READ: 1 Timothy 2:1-6a
What strikes you? What challenges you? What encourages you?
What does this passage show you about God’s desires for you? Your family? Your group? Your community? Your enemies?
How might God be speaking to you through this passage into your present moment?
Note that “peaceful” and “quiet” [your translation may vary] are listed together, but separate. We often can associate these two words as synonyms. What does their distinction and the rest of the content of this passage teach you about what peace means?
Who do you find it hard to pray for right now? What would it look like to offer petitions [requests], prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving for and on behalf of even that/those person/people? How might this work to bring about peace?
READ: Deuteronomy 6:1-9
What strikes you? What challenges you? What encourages you?
What does this passage show you about God’s desires for you? Your family? Your group? Your community? Your enemies?
How might God be speaking to you through this passage into your present moment?
Re-READ verse 4. Fill in the blank: “The LORD our God, the LORD is ______.”
What does this statement mean?
In a divided and fractured society, filled with divided and fractured families, filled with divided and fractured people, what does it mean for us to have a LORD who is ONE? What might His ONE-ness mean for our hopes for peace, or what our hopes for peace could/should look like?
Re-Read verse 5. How does His ONE-ness make possible the healing of our own fractured hearts, souls, and strength?
What would it do to you home if you obeyed this command and wrote the words of this command down on the “doorpost of your house and on your gates”? What would it do to your family? What would it do to your neighborhood?