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Our weekly newsletter filled with news, updates, and inspiring stories of how God is working in the Bay Area.

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*Some call it a quiet time. We call it a Vision Quest. This is a simple Bible study to help you along your journey of discovering God’s purpose for your life.*

No one likes to feel weak. We all want to be strong. That’s why we hide our weaknesses, our failures, and our faults. Turning our weaknesses into strengths is possible if we rely on God and allow him and others to influence our lives. This study is to help us believe that transformation is possible.

Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord.

James 1:5-8

The Bible tells us that if we need help, God is right there willing to give it! God actually enjoys and wants to give us the help we need–we just need to go to him to ask for it. But if we are doubtful and only try to rely on our own strength, we are unable to get the help we really need.

What stops you from asking God for help?

Identify what you need help with and start today by asking God and asking friends for help.

Lord, you provide the flame for my lamp. You, God, turn the darkness around me into light.

Psalm 18:28

This scripture tells us that God can turn any darkness, any hardship, and any difficulty in our life into a victory.

What in your life do you want God to change?

Start praying and asking God to move in this area of your life. As the earlier Scripture in James says, he will answer!

Then Jesus went with his followers to a place called Gethsemane. He said to them, “Sit here while I go there and pray.” He told Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to come with him. Then he began to be very sad and troubled. Jesus said to Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, “My heart is so heavy with grief, I feel as if I am dying. Wait here and stay awake with me.”

Matthew 26:36-38

Jesus was going through the most difficult part of his life. He knew that it was almost time for him to be crucified. What did he do?  He took three of his best friends with him.  He also was vulnerably honest with them by expressing how he felt and what he was going through.  He asked them for help.

When you are going through challenges in your life, who are your three friends that you tell everything to and that you turn to for help?

Transformation happens with God and with friends.

What makes you afraid to be honest with God and friends?

How can you change this today?

Then Jesus went on a little farther away from them. He fell to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, don’t make me drink from this cup. But do what you want, not what I want.” Then he went back to his followers and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Could you men not stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. Your spirit wants to do what is right, but your body is weak.”

Then Jesus went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if I must do this and it is not possible for me to escape it, then I pray that what you want will be done.”

Then he went back to the followers. Again he found them sleeping. They could not stay awake. So he left them and went away one more time and prayed. This third time he prayed, he said the same thing.

Matthew 26:39-44

Jesus turned his weaknesses into strengths by letting God and friends see the weaknesses for what they were. He was willing to feel sadness and anger, and instead of either exploding with these emotions or ignoring them, he expressed them honestly in prayer and to his friends.

But Jesus needed to not only be honest about his weaknesses, but overcome and have the strength to make it through what would be the most difficult time in his life. He had the willingness to decide to trust God with what he was going through, even though he didn’t initially want to. He believed that God would do what needed to be done in his life.

What are some emotions or weaknesses that you need to be honest about? How can you overcome to trust God will help?

Then Jesus went back to the followers and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? The time has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to the control of sinful men. Stand up! We must go. Here comes the one who will hand me over.”

Matthew 26:45-46

Jesus changed from being grieved and angry to being confident and calm about what he was going to experience.

 What weaknesses do you need to turn into strengths that will help you gain this confidence?

 

Written by

Bay Area Christian Church

This was created by a member of the Bay Area Christian Church team.