INWARD PRAYER

QUESTIONS:

1. What stood out to you tonight in the message or video? Why do you think that was especially a highlight for you?
2. What do you think is the most common way people deal with their regrets (ie. denial, distraction, suppression)?
3. Well known Christian author Lewis Smedes wrote about when we forgive “You set a prisoner free, but you discover that the real prisoner was yourself.” In what ways can forgiving someone else set you free from regret?
4. Read Psalm 51 together, a Psalm of David
   1. What words and phrases stand out to you most in Psalm 51? Explain.
   2. This is a Psalm of David, what ways do you see him recognizing and releasing his regrets in this Psalm?
5. What is one thing that comes to your mind that you think you need to let go in order to experience freedom?

OUTWARD PRAYER

RECOGNIZE AND RELEASE REGRETS

WHAT’S THE MAIN POINT? I need to be honest with my regrets and then do the work of dealing with them as Jesus calls me to.

WORD UP: 1 Peter 5:6-7

As mentioned last week, Peter denied Jesus three times and then was restored by Jesus after his resurrection. This same Peter is the one who writes these words. He is sharing that the pathway to recovery starts with being honest with what is really going on and bringing that to God. It’s also important to note that God welcomes the behaviour of casting anxiety on to Him because he deeply loves us and wants to restore us.

1 John 1:8-9

Again, this Scripture highlights that being honest with sin, through confession, is the path to God healing us from them.

Romans 12:17-19 and Colossians 3:1-3

In circumstances where we have been hurt, done wrong, even severely wrong, these verses point us towards forgiving others. What is forgiveness? Taking that person or persons off our hook of punishment and putting them on God’s hook. We are able to do this more and more as we experience God’s forgiveness more and more.

WAKE UP:

Here are a few options to help youth wake up to idea of the your devotional:

• Ask one of these questions/scenarios to ask the larger group to get them thinking about the topic you are teaching on:
  • • Tell us about a time where you went through a majority of your day or event with something glaringly wrong about your outfit or appearance, but no one said anything
    • If you could take a time machine into the past to warn a historical character before they made a regretful decision, whom would you pick? Why?
• Share your own story of when you became aware of a mess-up you made and how you dealt with it
• Mandatory Wakeup – Use video story #2 provided by one of our youth leaders and their regrets found at https://beulahyouth.ca/startingover

WHY DO I CARE?

• If I do not face my regrets and do something about them, they will hang on to me and limit me from truly living to my full potential
• I don’t have to live a life of regret but I can be free
• When I don’t forgive others, I am only hurting myself

WHAT DO I DO?

• Confess any sin that may have come along with what I am regretting
• Choose to forgive sin of others who may have hurt me
• Ask Jesus for healing to start new in my life

OTHER RESOURCES:

• Check out the Adult Small Group Video that has a small teach and a story: https://youtu.be/kWNTx-XYuHw
• Pages 37 to 68 of the book “Starting Over” by Dave and Jon Ferguson