Wednesday Night Discipleship

Wednesday night was the official kick-off to starting the book of 2 Thessalonians with our small groups. It was an okay night, it could've been better if I wasn't distracted by some things. However I was able to get something out of what was shared by my dearest friend, Stacie. She was able to share with us three points that night from what she got out of the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians. 

• The first point was, 'start thanking God'. Even though in the first chapter it seems as if Paul was only thanking the Thessalonians, he was ultimately thanking God. 
• The second point was 'Gods Righteous Judgement.' Even though we may be struggling in our lives because of what we believe in Paul was saying to continue walking strongly in their faith and that God would have vengeance on those who persecuted us. I shared with the girls in my group how this reminded me of Cain in Genesis chapter 12. Even though God had cursed Cain he still put a mark on him so that if anyone tried to kill him they would suffer Gods vengeance. I love that! Not only does God still protect us when we do wrong but he protects us from those who try to do wrong to us even in our wrong!! (I hope that makes sense as much as it does to me ha) Ultimately what was being said is that God is our justice.
• The final point, which stuck out to me, was 'the outcome belongs to God.' Stacie shared how God is only asking for us to stay strong through persecution and trials by letting go and letting God take control. She shared a little bit about a mans story and how his little daughter was going cancer. what stuck out to her most was when he said "you never find the answer to 'why?' because it is the wrong question." This got me thinking so much because recently I had been thinking of so many questions I wanted to ask God yet I couldn't find the answers. That's because there is no answers, YET! Right now it may seem so complicated, confusing, and so much more yet all God wants us to do is seek His presence. This really stuck out to me considering that im in a situation where all I need to do is trust God. As Stace said 'Gods got this.'

After that we shared the answers of our homework to one another and this was really cool to me because I love hearing how others are spoken too through the word. We ended the night by praying for one another and even though we went overtime and had to end a little quicker it was a good time getting that encouragement from the ladies.