Holy Habits: Steadfastness

James 2 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 look at the importance of endurance and steadfastness in the walk of faith as we seek to live beyond the moment…

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:

• Share about a time when you REALLY wanted to quit… but you didn’t. What was happening, and what were you thinking about as you processed the decision to keep going or not?

• What helped you to live beyond the angst of the moment you were in?

  Group Discussion:

• Read James 1:2-4

  • James talks about trials as a gift, a “pure joy” because of the outcome of maturity.

    • Why is maturity worth the trials that forge our characters in this way? (1 Peter 4:12-13, 2 Peter 3:18, Eph 4:11-16, James 1:12)

    • What is the “work” that perseverance has to ‘finish’? (2 Peter 1:3-11)

    • How does “testing of our faith develop perseverance”? (Romans 5:3-4, Phil 3:10-16)

  • James used the term “know” in the sense of personal experience, not just head knowledge.

    • How does our knowledge of God reinforce our experience of His work in our lives— share a personal story where you took a step of faith because of something you believed to be true of God. What happened?

    • How do trials test faith? (1 Peter 1:7, Romans 5:3-5, Mark 4:16, 17)

• Read James 1:5-8. Maturity and wisdom are closely related! Let’s talk about that…

  • Why do we often NOT ask for wisdom, but instead forge ahead with plans we ask God to bless?

  • James says that doubting and double-mindedness are related, like two sides of the same coin. How so?

  • James is talking here of the connection between faith and faithfulness (James 1:12). Where else do we see this theme in Scripture? (James 2:14-20, Hebrews 5:8, Luke 22:42, Matthew 7:15-20, Hebrews 3:18,19, Hebrews 10:22-23, 38-39, 1 Corinthians 4:2)

Application: 

Discuss some supports to developing the habit of steadfastness: encouraging each other, praying with someone else, daily time in the Word, being quick to obey… what else can support the ‘habit’ of enduring, steadfast, active faith?

Prayer:

There is a reward ahead for steadfast faith! Spend some time together praying for the mind and heart of a servant who sees the fulfillment of God’s will in and through us as the goal of a life that will be richly rewarded.

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