Discussion Guide
Relationships are wonderful, hard, complicated, and messy at times. We have all had (or have) conflicts or situations that need restoration in our lives. This weekend in the message we talked about how to have biblical restoration with the people God has placed in our lives.
What you will need: A Bible or your Bible app, a notebook, pen, and highlighter. The verses highlighted below are linked so that you can easily access them during your study time.
Jump Start
1. Share a time when a relationship was restored in your life. Do you currently have an unresolved issue in a relationship?
2. Restoration Requires Transparency. Read Genesis 45:1-3. Consider how often we hide our true feelings in broken relationships. Who was it hurting most when Joseph hides the truth? In what way do you need to be transparent in a relationship to see it restored?
3. Restoration Requires Forgiveness. Read Genesis 45:4-5, Colossians 3:13. How does this scripture imply that Joseph has forgiven his brothers? In Colossians does Christ suggest or command forgiveness? In what way might God be asking you to make the first move in a broken or strained relationship?
4. Allow God to Use Your Pain. Read Genesis 50:20, 2 Corinthians 1:4. How did God use the hurt and pain in Joseph’s life to help others? How can God use your hurt and pain to help others in your life?
Action Step: Ask God to show you any relationships that may need healing or restoration in your life. Ask Him to help you be transparent and make the first move, forgive, and allow God to use your pain.
Deeper
5. Read John 4:7-17. Consider the woman at the well, was she being transparent with Jesus in the beginning? What can we speculate about the woman since she came to the well when no one else was there?
6. Read John 4:25-30, John 4:39. How did the forgiveness of Jesus change her life? How did Jesus use her pain to change the lives of so many?