Week 2 – Dealing with the past (Questions)

1) What in your past do you feel has been a real blessing to you and why?

2) (a) What things in your past have been really detrimental to you?, (b) How have you, are you, or will you deal with them?

3) Some people suggest that we should confront ‘bad feelings’ from our past.  Other people suggest that we should bury them.  What do you think?

4) Are there any areas of your life that control you, or habits that you cannot break? What should you do about them?

5) Are there any past (or present) fears or feelings that you need to deal with so that you can really enter into the ‘peace of God’?

 

Read the passage: Genesis 50 verses 15 – 21

Dealing with hurts & injustices from your past:

1) Why had Joseph’s brothers been so wicked to him?

2) How might Joseph have responded?

3) How did Joseph come to terms with what had happened to him?

4) Is there always a reason for past hurts & injustices in our lives?

5) Are Christians allowed to redress injustices & to seek revenge?

 

Read the passage: Acts 26 verses 9 – 18

Dealing with shame & sin from your past:

1) What did Paul do about the mistakes he’d made & his past sins?

2) What should we do about people we have hated or injured?

3) What should we do about sin & shame that ‘haunts’ us?

 

II Corinthians 5 verse 17:  ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’

Colossians 3 verse 5:  ‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.’