Please read Chapter 2 - "The Origins of the Search” If you have extra time, complete Step 2 in the Workbook. Key points in this Chapter include:
- There is a real spiritual battle over our understanding of God’s truth and offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, with man often choosing to trust in his success and the opinions of others to give him a sense of self-worth.
- Our attempts to meet our needs for success and approval fall into two broad categories: compulsiveness (controllers, perfectionists, manipulators) and withdrawal (avoid failure/disapproval by avoiding risk and vulnerability).
- When we base our security on success and others’ opinions, we become dependent on our abilities to perform and please others. We develop a “have-to” mentality. The “have-to” mentality is sheer slavery to performance and the opinions of others, but we are secure and free in Christ.
Questions that we will discuss this week at Tuesday at 7am and Friday at 6:30am include:
- When did you first grasp the truth that you have been saved by grace (unmerited favor}, through faith {trust} and not anything you did, but a gift of God?
- What truths on page 17 (my version) about who you are in Christ are most difficult for you to grasp (e.g. All your sins are forgiven, past, present and future, You became a child of God, etc)?
- What impact do you think that humanism (the teaching that man is above all else) and our society in general has on each of our abilities to be convinced that apart from God, this life has little meaning and purpose?
- The book discusses two broad categories for which our attempts to meet our needs for success and approval fall into: compulsiveness and withdrawal. Which have you seen most notably in your life?
- How do you react to the authors description of the “Have to” mentality – can you identify with that?
- What does it mean to you that God created you in his image? How does this affect your behavior?
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