What Does God Think When He Thinks About Me
Speaker: Harmony Shipman and Luke Thomas
Harmony Shipman
Read: Psalm 139:1-18; Philippians 4:8; Proverbs 9:10
Harmony shared how she, like many of us, has struggled to figure out who she is. Even though we know we have been made in God’s image and that Jesus loves us, still there are times that the words and deeds of others stick in our minds and cause us to question our worth and our identity. We also know we are not perfect and that when we are convicted of our sins we should repent, but we should not condemn ourselves or allow negative or guilty thoughts to define us. For we were not created to place our identity in the perceptions of others or even ourselves. Instead we were created to worship and glorify God. To do so, we must have a fear of the Lord. This will help us to connect in a deeper way with Him and allow us to be familiar with what He says about us. Then the countless verses that He speaks in His Word will overwhelm the negative thoughts with the truth.
Luke Thomas
In considering the question of what God thinks when He thinks about him, Luke shared that his question becomes what does he think when he thinks about himself. He said as he ages, he thinks that he should be further along than he is, that he feels there are areas in his life where he feels behind and sometimes that in some ways, he has lost potential. When he considers time that has past and the time that is ahead, he is aware that there are two types of time expressed through the Greek words: chronos and Kairos. Chronos is literally every moment in time, whereas Kairos refers to an ordained or appointed time by a higher power, or a purposeful time to do or experience certain things. We may go through life considering moments to be chronos time and may miss the Kairos moments God places before us. From God’s perspective, as long as we have life, we have plenty of Kairos time left. And we need to ask God to help us recognize those appointed times when we can be generous with our lives and impact the lives of others.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What resonated with you as listened to this sermon and reviewed it?
2. What does fearing the Lord mean to you?
3. How do we go about learning how to fear the Lord?
4. It was quoted that ‘focusing on others perceptions is rooted in the fear of man. And when we fear man, we allow how others view us to define and influence us.’ What are your thoughts about this? How have the perceptions of others influenced your life?
5. Have you ever thought you should be further along or felt that areas of your life are behind where you feel it should be? Why do you think you feel this way?
6. It was said that we sometimes trade Kairos moments for chronos moments. What does this mean to you?
7. It was said that God thinks we have plenty of kairos time left in life. What does this mean to you? What do you consider a Kairos moment?
