Memory Verse for the Week: 1 Peter 1:13 (ESV) 

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INTRO: When have you burned with curiosity, and over what?

IN THE THRALL OF SUFFERING
In what ways is suffering not shocking, and yet, in what ways is it surprising or even terrifying?

SAVED BY A DIFFERENT GOD
How is the God of the Bible different?

CALLED TO LIVE DIFFERENTLY
How and why are we called to not live as the world lives?

YOU CAN PRAY WITH US …

1. Worship the LORD for His holiness, especially vs. the broken ugliness of this world. Praise Him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that no thing and no one can possibly compare with Him in His power, wisdom, or love.

2. How have you lived under the dominance of suffering, without any reference to Jesus or eternity? Confess your worldliness to Jesus, asking Him to forgive you and to anchor you in His love and grace vs. all that is broken and wrong.

3. Give thanks to Jesus for the holiness of His saving work. Thank Him for His miraculous grace and mercy, to do what we cannot do to remove all of our guilt, and to seal to us all of His holy status.

4. Who do you know that is being humbled by suffering? Pray for them, asking the Lord to help them to let go of “any futile ways” inherited from the world, and to gain a greater and greater sense of hope in Jesus.

5. Ask the Holy Spirit to bear in you His fruit of love, joy, and patience. Pray for His work in your life to free you from conforming to this world’s ways and to inspire you with your hope fully set on the grace of Jesus.