Attributes Of God: Transcendence And Immanence

What are God’s attributes? Each Friday we will look at an attribute of God. Attributes of God are the foundational beliefs about who God is and what He is like that come from Scripture.  You can’t worship a God fully if you only know Him partially. This week, the transcendence and immanence of God. Transcendence is that aspect of God’s character that recognizes His position above and beyond all that He created. He is great, impenetrable, and matchless. His immanence recognizes that He graciously enters into His creation, working and acting within the world that He has made.

“God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being.” – C.S. Lewis

It has become normal to hear people refer to God as the “Man upstairs.” The user may not intend it this way, but such references reveal a lack of understanding about who and what God really is and diminish His character to only slightly higher than us. We were made in the image of God.  God was not made in the image of us.  People wrongly assume that God’s worth is just slightly higher than ours. This is not what scripture tells us.

Psalm 113:46 tells us, “For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens. Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth.” The psalmist praises God for His transcendence — placing God in his rightful place “above all nations,” filled with authority, and independent from His creation.  God is infinite, omnipresent, and sovereign over all. God is past the limits of our finite understanding. This is no small God, able to be pacified or distracted. Our only right response is reverence, awe, and humility.

We need to remember, however, that God’s transcendence does not contradict His personal interactions with us: it increases the value of that relationship. The next verses in the same psalm paint a picture of an immanent God. “He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people! He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the Lord!”

The grace and mercy of God are evident in this passage. Even the most invisible and devalued in our society are treasured and sustained by the God who is present with us; the God revealed in the gospel of Matthew as “Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.” (1:23).

Take a moment to ponder these truths. God is immanent. He sees you—your struggles, your pain, your sickness. Because He is personal and intimate with you, you can come to Him in need and He can sympathize with your weakness (Hebrews 4:15). God is also transcendent. He can do something about your needs. Our prayers will not return void because the God who is with us is also the creator and sustainer of the universe. He is able to change both our circumstances and our heart.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you ever feel like God is just too big or too far away to care for you?
  2. It has been said, that we have exactly as much of God as we ask for. Agree or disagree and why?
  3. God is transcendent, which means he is highly exalted. He is in his own category, above and beyond us. God is also immanent, meaning He is ever-present in a personal and intimate way. What does that mean to us in daily life?

Are You Content This Thankgiving

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6-8.

Paul is certainly on the Mt Rushmore of the greatest Christians. But we can’t forget Paul was a regular human being, with access to the same not-so-super-secret Christian tools (the Holy Spirit, prayer, the Bible) as you and me. Through the soaring highs and devastating lows of his life, God taught Paul to keep his eyes on the prize: the salvation of Jesus Christ.  Nothing else mattered.

Contentment is confidence in God’s providence and learning to be satisfied with relatively little, and equally important, it’s a sense of independence from circumstances.  Contentment and a spirit of thanksgiving have less to do with getting what we want, and more to do with wanting what we already have. The promise is not that God will make you wealthy, but that He will give you strength.

So where does that leave us? Frustrated? Often disappointed? Worried? Lacking joy? But, if you can look past all that you can have, you can be content. The forgiveness God provides for our failures and transgressions gives us a deep and lasting peace, contentment, and happiness. Resting in the security of Jesus allows us to turn our focus away from how much we can accumulate for ourselves and toward how much we can serve Him and further His kingdom.

Paul tells us as much in Philippians 4:11-13: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Thanksgiving is a season of being content. Thanksgiving reminds us of all the things to be grateful for. One reason that we fail to thank God now for what we have is that we want more – we want the next step. We fool ourselves into thinking that when we get more or when we get to the next step then we will stop to thank Him. But that suggests we should not be grateful for what God is doing in our lives as part of His plan for each of us. And that means being thankful even when we are facing setbacks.

We should be thankful because God is worthy of our thanksgiving. It is only right to credit Him because “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father…” (James 1:17). Expressing thankfulness helps us remember that God is in control. Thankfulness, then, is not only appropriate; it is actually healthy and beneficial to us. It reminds us of the bigger picture, that we belong to God, and that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

All of us have a lot to be thankful for this time of year. But not only should we give thanks during the holidays, but we should also give thanks to God every day of the year.

This Thanksgiving, leave your worries about tomorrow with the Lord and you will accept every situation as God’s wise classroom for your growth and development. And when this happens, you will find that in good times or bad, pleasant or painful . .. . you will be content.

Discussion Questions:
1. What is the difference between joy and contentment?

2. What is the secret of being content in every circumstance?

Keeping It Real

 “for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.” – Psalm 78:2-4.

‘Keep it real” is defined as remaining honest, genuine, and authentic; to be true to oneself. When someone does not change who they are or what they believe due to societal pressures or someone who maintains connections to their ethnic background in a multicultural environment. Nobody wants to be fake. Rather, we crave authenticity because everyone wants to be real.

Is it enough simply to say we’re real, or should we be able to see we’re real? And if so, what should we see? Are there marks of authentic faith we should see in our lives, or in the lives of others? The Psalms have a lot to say about keeping it real.

The Psalmist pours out his heart to God – his hurts, heartaches, anger, frustration, depression, and discouragement.  He’s honest about the times he’s failed, but he also seeks justice and vindication when he’s been wrongly accused, He’s not blind to the injustice and evil in this world, nor the unfairness when evil seems to triumph sometimes or go unpunished. He doesn’t force a smile on his face pretending to be on an “above the fray” spiritual plane. He doesn’t always feel God’s presence or comfort or strength or help. ”When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted.” (Psalm 77:2)

The Psalmist also keeps it real about the good stuff, too. He remembers all the times he was encouraged and strengthened by God’s presence, love, and grace. Psalm 78:2-4 is an example. “…we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders” He recites all the ways God has been there for him in the past and how God has promised to be there for him now and in the future. He rejoices in God’s protection and provision — in big ways and small ways. ”He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.”  (Psalm 78:72) He praises the life-giving wisdom God has provided for us in His Word.

You become a person of integrity by being real with others. You don’t fake it.  You are yourself.  You don’t pretend.  You’re authentic.  You’re genuine.  You’re not a hypocrite.  You don’t wear a mask and talk a certain way with this group and then go over here and you wear another mask and act a certain way with this group.  You don’t act one way in church and one way at work and another way on the golf course or when you’re shopping at the supermarket or whatever.  No. You’re always the same.  You’re not perfect. You’re not sinless. It’s not that you don’t make mistakes.  You do make mistakes.  But your heart is in the right direction.  And you are real with other people.

That is the way we keep it real.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does it mean to you to be real?
  2. What can we do this week to be more real, more authentic?

Promises, Promises

“The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” – Genesis 13:1-3.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep was one of the common maxims in business. It is wide advice as it was accepted that it is better to turn business away rather than disappoint. Promises are hard to keep, and we will experience unfulfilled promises. It is a pretty common struggle in life.

The Bible confirms that fact. Adam and Eve invite sin and death into our world. Cain kills Abel, even after God warns him about the evil lurking in his heart. And there’s nearly everyone else: “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5). It would be easy to imagine God having enough. But in Genesis 12, God does something tremendously gracious: He chooses to befriend an elderly man and bless him beyond all imagination.

The promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 13, seem too big for reality: descendants enough to replace the stars in the sky and a name known far and wide to name two. These promises seem so removed from our everyday lives that we tend to leave them in the past, there among the tents and flocks of Abraham and Sarah. But the New Testament tells us that these promises are actually ours in Christ.

When we read God’s Word, we find God’s promises. Though it can be difficult to know how to apply them to our lives—or even if we should—the Bible makes an amazing claim that is itself a promise: All of God’s promises are “Yes” in Jesus: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

What are God’s promises? There are too many to list here, but when you hold your Bible you are holding God’s promises to you.  Some of the spiritual promises are the continued forgiveness of sins, our sanctification, supplying us with strength and peace in trials, and preserving us to the end.

It’s easy to become disappointed when we lump God in with humans who can’t keep their every promise, no matter how good their intentions are.  But God wants to, can, and will fulfill His promises to us. No matter how long we may have to wait, they will ultimately come to pass. He never fails in His promises. We need to pray daily for God to fulfill His promises in our lives and we must ask Him to give us the patience we need to wait and trust.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you tend to trust promises or react with skepticism? Why?
  2. How do you think the promises that people have broken in your life have affected your ability to trust God’s promises?
  3. If you completely accepted God’s promises, how would your life be different?   

What Is Integrity?

“I will be careful to live a blameless life— when will you come to help me? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.” – Psalm 101:2.

How do you define integrity? Basically, integrity is a principled dedication to values and beliefs. People with integrity always seek to reflect ethical standards and do the right thing regardless of the circumstances.

Integrity is a shortcut to the heart. It gets past all the pretending, the rule-following and the head knowledge, and examines the heart and its values. These values should be reflected in our behavior in how we treat others and what we believe about ourselves, too. As Christians, we should be changed by what we know about Jesus and how He loves us. Many of us are quick to claim that we believe God’s word and agree with His commandments, but if that were the case, wouldn’t it be more evident in our lives?

 An example can be found in the life of Joseph. Joseph, Jacob’s son, went from pit to prison and then to become a prime minister. The one thread throughout his story is integrity. We find him living for his convictions, whether someone was watching or wasn’t watching. One part of the Joseph’s journey can be found in Genesis 39: Joseph was sold as a slave to a man named Potiphar. Potiphar worked for Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt. Potiphar clearly enjoyed Joseph’s work: “When [Joseph’s] master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate” (Genesis 39:3–6). However, the account of Joseph and Potiphar changes when Potiphar’s wife asked Joseph to sleep with her. When he refused, she falsely accused him of attempted rape. Upon hearing the charges, Potiphar sent Joseph to prison.

Living a life of integrity is never easy. We wrestle and struggle with understanding ourselves and our desires. We don’t always do what we say we do or want to do, and we don’t live our lives reflecting our heart’s true values. We see this same internal battle in Paul when he writes in Romans 7:15, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” Even Paul struggled with committing to what he knows is right. Life gets messy and it doesn’t seem so black and white. Doing the right thing isn’t as clear and committing to the right thing seems even further away and impossible to do.

Many times we don’t realize that people are watching us. They are paying attention to what we do. They may not tell us they are watching us, but they want to see if we are the real deal, if we are men and women of integrity.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you define integrity? 
  2. Can your integrity serve as an example and contribute to your legacy? If so, how?
  3. What steps can you take this week to work towards godly integrity?

The Attributes Of God – The Wrath Of God

What are God’s attributes? Each Friday, we will look at an attribute of God. This week, the wrath of God.

“The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies! The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet. At his command the oceans dry up…and the rivers disappear. In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence. The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. But he will sweep away his enemies in an overwhelming flood. He will pursue his foes into the darkness of night.” – Nahum 1:2-8.

It is a little disquieting to hear about the wrath of God. The subject tends to make us uncomfortable. It is not something that you will listen to much on Sundays or in small groups. It is not something we dwell on in our devotions. Whenever someone brings it up in conversation, Christians often change the subject or prefer to talk about “happier” topics, such as God’s love.

Many Christians struggle with understanding God’s wrath because it seems like it’s opposed to God’s love. If you know wrathful as vengeful, it might be hard to reconcile these two attributes of God. But if the wrath of God is simply His righteous judgment against sinful humanity, then there is no conflict between the two. All of humanity is deserving of punishment. And a righteous God would correctly give us what we have earned. But God is also love. And He has provided a way of redemption; faith in the atoning blood of His Son.

The reality is that God’s wrath and love are interconnected. God loves us, and God hates sin. Because of God’s holiness, we cannot be in the presence of a holy God whenever we sin. God wants us to live in an intimate relationship with Him, but sin has created a gap between Himself and us. Fortunately, God bridged the gap. He unleashed his wrath, the outpouring of His righteous anger for the sin of man on Jesus. On the cross, Jesus chose to pay for our sins.

We should be in awe of the goodness of God. The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful world. God desires that all be saved: 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” 

God’s wrath would be truly terrifying if not satisfied in Christ. In saving us from His wrath, God has done what we could not do and what we didn’t deserve. It is the ultimate good news. 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” Romans 3:26 says, “for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time.” 

Jesus can save you from the wrath and reconcile you to the Father. He has opened heaven’s door, and He can bring you in.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Does the concept of God’s wrath concern you? Why?
  2. Should we fear and tremble before God? Why or why not?

 

Knowing Jesus is Not a religion, it is a Relationship.

 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” – Hosea 6:6.

Knowing Jesus is not a religion, it is a relationship. Knowing God doesn’t mean knowing about God. It doesn’t mean accumulating a fact book in your head. Instead, to know God is to be brought into a relationship with Him. To know God, to be able to say, I don’t just know about Him, I know him. I’ve seen Him work in my life. I’ve built my life upon His promises, and I’ve seen time after time He is faithful to me. I’ve noticed that He never fails.

 To know God is to be brought into a relationship with God. The Bible cover to cover is about knowing God. Could you imagine being Adam looking at the One who just made you? You were just created and God looks at you and says I made you. I breathed life into you. You were made to know Me. So you stand there in awe, looking at your creator and walking side by side with Him. Then God creates Eve, and then the two of you are walking in the garden. Nothing can get to you. God is there to protect and love you, to have fellowship with you. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t you want to be in that position? What would it feel like to walk with God? What would it be like to know God in such a way? The good news is we too can know God in an intimate way.

But Adam was just the first of many who had a special connection with God. You have people like Abraham who was called a friend of God and Moses who would go up on the mountaintop and actually be with God. David wrote in Psalm 27:4: “The one thing I ask of the LORD— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.”

There’s nothing more important than getting an accurate view of God. Our hope and prayer are that God will expand our minds and enlarge our hearts as we seek Him and begin to see God as He longs to be seen.

That is our goal: to know God better. We don’t want to be satisfied in just knowing about God….we want you to really know God by having your heart completely opened: to see the world how God sees it.   

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does a life of intimate relationship with God look like? Spend a few minutes thinking about your relationship with Jesus. Reflect on Psalm 139 and Philippians 3:8. What’s your relationship with Jesus like? Is it more about facts and rules than an intimate, personal relationship?
  2. What might you be missing out on in your relationship with Jesus? What needs to change in order for you to have a more intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

Knowing God Because He Has Made Himself Known

“May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself through his marvelous glory and excellence.”  – 2 Peter 1:2–3.

I think one of our issues as followers of Jesus is that too many people know about God without really knowing Him. The danger is we may know Him in our heads but not our hearts. It is possible to be steeped in the Bible or theology or history while having little or no intimacy with God. Certainly, there is no shortage of materials to fill our minds about God – many different Bible versions, sermons online, and on and books by the hundreds – but that does not necessarily translate into a heartfelt experience of God.

The good news is that God wants to be known. So while God can never be exhaustively understood, He can be known truly, personally, intimately, and sufficiently. We can obtain a genuine, compelling, and accurate knowledge of God. God has shared with us the secret of who He is in scripture. God has revealed Himself to us with the most clarity and detail in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the living, breathing, flesh-and-blood, human presentation of God: “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14).

The signs and wonders Jesus performed revealed the glory and power of God. The way He lived, the miracles He performed, and His teachings and parables all demonstrated how much the Father cares for us. The way to know the Father and have a relationship with Him is to know the Son.

The best way we have to know Jesus is through the Word of God. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself and His purposes throughout history. Jesus Himself taught that the Scriptures reveal who He is: ”You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” (John 5:39)

The Bible presents us with eyewitness testimony of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ: “ For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:16–19)

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does it mean to you to “know” God?   
  2. What can we do in the short term to better know God?  

A Passion For Righteousness

“The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.. . . . The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” —  Proverbs 10:7, 11 (ESV)

With each beatitude that makes up the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continues to prove that He is concerned with the position of our hearts. The fourth beatitude, says, “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.”

If we want to understand the Fourth Beatitude, we need to know what Jesus means by the term righteousness. Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are those whose goal is righteousness, for they shall attain their goal.” Nor did He say, “Blessed are those who have a desire for righteousness, for they will have their heart’s desire.” Rather, He spoke in everyday terms regarding intense hunger. We are not simply to seek righteousness or have righteousness as a goal; we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness. He pronounced a blessing on the ones who are hungry for it. Blessed are those whose thirst for righteousness is a consuming passion.

Sometimes athletes that have signed huge contracts lose some of their passion and are content to rest on their laurels. When pundits see this happening they usually comment by saying, “they’re not hungry like they were before they were established.” As always Jesus is the example in which to follow. The New Testament talks a great deal about how the zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him: “Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” (John 2:17). This language means that Jesus’ passion for the affairs of His heavenly Father consumed Him.   

Jesus promises in this beatitude that if we strive for righteousness, we will be filled and satisfied. This is the distinguishing factor between Christianity and so many other religions. Jesus wants to know us, and He wants us to draw near to Him and seek His presence. Jesus tells us that if we truly desire a right relationship with Him, then that is exactly what we will have.

In the final analysis, we want the approval of God—but the applause of men can be deafening, and it can cause us to turn our attention toward achieving everything else apart from what Christ set as the priority for His people: to be righteous. Being righteous is not all that complicated; it means having a passion to do what is right.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you define righteousness?  
  2. What are some advantages of righteousness? 

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger And Thirst

“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” –  Matthew 5:6.

The word “blessed” is tossed around on a regular basis. Often the word “blessed” is associated with earthly prosperity and happiness. But what does it biblically mean to be blessed?

Many think that if they had abundant wealth, an absence of regret and suffering, excellent health, good employment, unending gratification of their desires, and kind treatment of everyone, this would mean they are blessed. But in the Beatitudes, Jesus turns this kind of thinking upside down. In this passage (Matthew 5:3-12), Jesus sets forth characteristics of the ideal person of His kingdom: being poor, mourning, humility, hunger, thirst, rejection, and persecution, all qualities that were present in the life and character of the Man who spoke them. Through these experiences, Jesus says that the disciple would be blessed. To be blessed means that we receive God’s favor. We receive His endorsement and approval.

In verse 6, Jesus speaks these words, “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” Hunger and thirst represent the deepest desires we have. What is your deepest desire? What do you hunger and thirst for? Is it control? Maybe it’s comfort? But here’s the thing, none of these things bring blessings to our lives. We are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

But have we ever had a hunger and a thirst for God? The answer is yes when we face a health crisis when nothing else mattered but experiencing His peace. There are other times that I’ve clearly needed the Lord in huge ways and hungered for His presence.  But how often have I really hungered and really thirsted for righteousness?

The hunger and thirst described by Jesus in this beatitude are not some kind of hunger that could be satisfied with a mid-morning snack or a cup of coffee. This is the hunger and thirst of one who is desperate, one who will risk everything to be satisfied. How much do you hunger after God? Do you want it as much as a starving man wants food and as much as a man dying of thirst wants water?” In the 63rd Psalm, David expressed his desire for God: “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

When we’re thirsty, we crave water. Our daily need for water acts as our reminder to drink deeply of Jesus every day. He doesn’t have what we need. He is what we need. Knowing this, we can also rejoice in the fact that Jesus doesn’t just give us a drink to satisfy us at the moment, but He gives us an eternal fountain of living water. We will never run out of His grace, His love, and His freedom.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Have you felt distant from God because of something you did (sin, busyness, etc.)? How did it impact your relationship with God? 
  2. What can we do this week to thirst after God?