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Grace UMC prepares for Sunday worship by reading the scripture for the coming Sunday’s sermon. Below, you fill find questions that can be used for Bible Study, small groups or personal devotion. Let the scripture speak into your life! Expect great things!
Preparation for 16th Sunday After Pentecost
Gathering Prayer
Creating God, it has been told to us since the very beginning that you are truly the Lord of all that is and ever shall be.
You are the God of both the prince and pauper, of feast and famine, of the mighty and the weak — and yet, you do not favor the strong over the powerless.
Remind us of your love as we read the scriptures, O God of True Justice.
Open our eyes – open our hearts – that we may be strengthened and renewed by your Word.
Gathering Time
- Share one word to describe how it is with your soul today.
- In pairs of 2 share your experience of when you’ve been a part of a collective effort to overcome a struggle or injustice?
Scripture: Isaiah 40:21-31 (New International Version)
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers, He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens, who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.
Group Dialogue
- With what questions did Isaiah introduce his thoughts about the transcendence of God? (40:21-24)
- What wonder of nature did the Holy One use as an example of His power? (40:25-26)
- How did God respond to Judah’s assertion that He had forgotten them? (40:27-28)
- What were God’s special promises to the weak and weary? (40:29-31)
- How does Isaiah’s message of comfort apply to us today?
Closing Prayer
God of life, God of hope, God of all
Lift us on your love like eagle’s wings
Sustain us, Guide us, Heal us, Revive us
Then send us forth into the world, That we
may love as you love.
Amen.