Your Personal Grow-Pray-Study (GPS) Guide

Monday: Read Hebrews 10:24-25. Consider your participation in CLCM Life Groups. If you are a member of a life group, pray about how your participation will uplift and encourage the members of your group, especially the leadership if you are not the leader.

Tuesday: Read Numbers 27:18. If you are the leader of a Life Group, think about how you might be an encouragement to someone who can be a leader, but has not yet taken the steps forward.

Wednesday: Read Ephesians 4:22-24. List a few personal spiritual epiphanies you have had. Consider how they have changed your outlook on life and your attitude in all things.

Thursday: Read James 1:12. Think of someone or a family in our congregation that has endured a hardship or long-suffering with grace and thanksgiving. Thank God for them and consider how you might express your own thankfulness to them personally.

Friday: Read Romans 12:2 . Did you get the work book Transformed: How God Changes Us? It will help you process through the next 8 weeks of messages, starting with Setting Personal Goals by Faith this coming Sunday. Pray that God would open you up to Pastor’s messages in the coming weeks and that you would see this message series as an opportunity to be truly transformed in a way that pleases God.

Saturday: Read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13. Consider how blessed we are to be part of the Family of Faith at Christ Lutheran Church. God has blessed us with amazing pastors and staff who truly love us and lead us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. Thank God for them in your prayers and look for opportunities to be an encouragement to them.

Monday: Read Matthew 2:9-10 and Psalm 16:11. As God revealed Himself to the Magi He was also working in their hearts. We can see this by the joy they experienced as they came before Jesus. Have you experienced joy as you came before Jesus? Pray that God would work in the journey of your life filling your heart with overwhelming joy.

Tuesday: Read Matthew 2:11 and Psalm 27:4. As God continued to reveal himself to the Magi He transformed their hearts. We can see this in how they entered Jesus’ house and bowed down and worshiped Him. As we encounter Jesus, coming into God’s presence He creates within us the desire to worship Him. What does it mean to you to worship Jesus? Where do you experience the presence of God?

Wednesday: Read Matthew 2:11. As the Magi’s journey continued God filled their hearts with gratitude. We see this as they give gifts to Baby Jesus. We do not give gifts to Jesus to impress him or to assure His goodness to us. Rather, our gifts to Jesus are an expression of our gratitude for his gifts to us. Our generosity begins with the giving of ourselves to Jesus. What is one way that you can “give yourself to Jesus” this week?

Thursday: Read Philippians 4:8. The journey of our life is never simple. It’s always filled with dead-end roads, forks in the road where we need to make a choice, and of course park benches that invite us to stop the journey and just sit it out. Successful journeys require God to work in our hearts, focusing our thoughts on that which is good. What are distractions in your life? How can you keep your journey focused on things that are worthy of praise?

Friday: Read Luke 2:10-11. When we receive good news of great joy it is impossible to keep it to ourselves. As we share God’s joy in the birth of Jesus our natural reaction is to share it and watch it multiply. Who are some of the people in your life who share God’s joy with you? Who is someone with whom you can share God’s joy?

Saturday: Read Revelation 3:20. Standing at the door implies acting and waiting and every journey involves a rhythm of seeking and waiting. This rhythm is ours to embrace and live into. This rhythm gives shape to our journey. How do you respond to times of seeking and to those times of waiting? How have you seen God work in your life through seeking and waiting?