Week Seven, Day One

Honesty

Study Proverbs 12:22 and 2 Corinthians 8:21.

It’s helpful to practice using the ACTS prayer guide from time to time. ( Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication….remember?)

Today, practice using the ACTS acrostic and include the following in your personal prayer time:

• Thank God for His truth.
• Ask God to give you the courage to speak the truth.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Study Colossians 3:9-10.

Week Seven, Day Two

Influence

Study Proverbs 27:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:33.

Include the following in your personal prayer time:

• Commit to let God choose your closest friends.
• Ask God to mold you into the type of person that draws others into a closer relationship with Him.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Study Proverbs 13:20.

Week Seven, Day Three

Healing Broken Relationships

Because we struggle to “die to self” on a daily basis, we followers of Christ don’t always get along with one another. We get selfish. We make mistakes. We get mad. Sometimes, we even try to get “even.” None of it is God-honoring, and none of it is acceptable in God’s eyes. When His children are at odds with each other, God’s message is loud and clear, “I don’t care who started it, just fix it!”

Study Matthew 5:23-24.

God requires more than emotional forgiveness or a new attitude, things you can take care of within yourself without having to interact with someone else. He expects us to take action and be the first one to try to make things right in a relationship that has gone wrong.

Include the following in your personal prayer time:

• Ask God to help you kill the human desire to be “right” and justify your actions in order to “win” an argument.
• Commit to make God’s glory your only priority when faced with conflict.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Study Romans 12:18.

Week Seven, Day Four

“EVERYTHING we say affects people. Words really can’t be taken back. They need to be processed through the right filters and some of them just don’t need to be said. We choose to speak or not to speak. It is a constant battle….I think those within the Body of Christ who have wisdom recognize those times when things shouldn’t be spoken almost as well as those times when it is truly necessary to put voice to conviction….I feel that some of the greatest effect we have on people occurs when most people don’t know that it really happened…it’s in the small right decisions that you just make…one controlled moment at a time.” Mike, Worship Leader

Controlling Your Tongue

Study Luke 6:45 and James 1:26.

Include the following in your personal prayer time:

• Ask God to make you more aware of the words that you speak and their impact on others.
• Commit to right any wrongs that you may have committed with your mouth.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Study Proverbs 12:18.

Week Seven, Day Five

Submitting to Authority

Study Romans 13:1-6.

Include the following in your personal prayer time:

• Thank God for the role that ALL of the authority figures in your life play and have played in God’s shaping of you. Think through the people that God has put in authority over you in each place that you go.
• Ask God for the humility to respond to ALL authority figures in your life with the proper attitude, keeping a tight rein on your tongue.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Study Ephesians 5:21.

The Weekend

Suggested Reading: Genesis 41-42.

Joseph’s story isn’t over yet. Finally, his time of testing and preparation are over. Does Joseph rise to the occasion and lead well? As you study, consider this: It’s one thing to live a public life that honors God, and quite another to live a private life that honors God. Public life comes with accountability, but the choices that you make in your private life are the ones that show whether or not you have truly “died to self.” Do you think that Joseph’s heart is fully surrendered to God? Has he conquered his pride? Have you?

Work on your memory verse(s)! If you are ready, challenge yourself and add more of the passage now.