Holy Habits: Solitude

Written By Mark Avery

Mark 1 and Selected Scriptures


Connect:

  • Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

This series is focused on changing our lives by forming habits that will nurture our life in Christ and daily walk with Jesus. This week we are reminded that busy-ness and intimacy with God are not all that compatible… which means we need to make a choice!

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience:

  • Think back to what your concerns were this morning when you started the day? Share about what happened and how you are thinking about those same things now.

  • In that mix, how was prayer and spending time “casting your burdens on the Lord” involved?

    Group Discussion:

  • Read Ecclesiastes 2:22-23, Mark 1:32-38

    • Let’s start with a reality check

      • On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your prayer life?

      • What are some of the things that keep us from a diligent, consistent, prayer life?

      • Compare what we are gaining and what we are missing in the current balance.

    • What was the role of prayer in the life of Jesus? He was the Son of God… why did He need to spend time praying when there was so much work to do?

    • Jesus knew that everyone was looking for Him, but His response (v38) was not to return to the crowds but to go somewhere new! Why?

  • Read the following times where Jesus took focused time away to be with His Father and discuss the principle, “You can’t pour out if you don’t fill up”

    • Before starting His ministry. Luke 4:1-2,14-15

    • Before making important decisions. Luke 6:12-13

    • After a long, hard day of work. Matthew 14:23

    • After ministering to lots of people. Luke 5:15-16

    • After losing a close friend. Matthew 14:10-13

  • Read Psalm 46. The call to “Be still” comes after a long line up of demonstrations that only God is God! Unpack that phrase, “Be still and know that I am God” in light of this chapter— what does that mean and how can it apply to our daily worries/struggles?

  • Read Matthew 6:5-15. discuss the question, “What is prayer for?” in light of this passage?

Application: 

Discuss practical steps to developing the habit of making space in the day for a consistent, focused prayer life. What would it take to do that?

Prayer:

Scott challenged us to ‘be still’, to make time to be alone with God. Spend some time praying that the Lord would call us into that time and give us a deeper and deeper desire to simply be close to Him!

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Get more resources to go deeper through Commentaries and Bible Study helps HERE

Mark Avery
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Holy Habits: Simplicity