Description
Serving others can be exhausting. So what is it that motivates us to serve? It’s easy to serve for our own glory, to become wrapped up in our own goodness. Yet God challenges us to serve not out of love for ourselves but to develop the heart of Christ for others.
This guide explores the disciplines of serving and secrecy. Service done in secret can eliminate prideful motivations and help us enjoy partnering with God. We learn to “be” even as we “do.”
Spiritual disciplines are a time-tested means of connecting us to the God who wants to transform our souls. We discover the disciplines in the Bible as we look at the everyday ways Jesus related to God. This series is designed to help us live in God’s presence by incorporating these spiritual practices into our lives.
“Jan Johnson opens a path on which anyone can actually and continuously grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
– Dallas Willard, author of Hearing God and The Divine Conspiracy
“For fifty-three years I have taught a required course at Dallas Theological Seminary on the principles of inductive Bible study. I recommend these studies because they are well devised and most provocative guides for first-hand Bible study.
– Howard Hendricks, Distinguished Professor
Chairman, Center for Christian Leadership
How Does This Study Work?
These Bible studies examine how we connect with God deeply as we serve others, and at times, do so in secrecy–without letting anyone else know about our good deeds. Each session includes several other elements as well.
Turning Toward God presents discussion (for groups) or reflection questions and exercises to draw us into the topic at hand.
Hearing God Through the Word draws us into a study of a related passage of Scripture with questions that connect it to life and invite us to reflect on what God is saying. A Leader’s Guide is printed in the back, providing more helps for leaders and study notes for specific questions.
Transformation Exercises are activities or thoughts to experiment with in order to experience the spiritual exercise studied. Perhaps you’ll read the exercise and think it’s too elementary or too difficult for you. Adapt it as needed. Or maybe you think you can guess what you’ll experience, so you don’t have to do it. The point is to experience it. Go ahead and try.
