Week 1 - Fall Focus 2024
Week One: Known By God
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
(Psalm 139:23)
Opening Question
Introduce yourself to the group. What is something unique that everyone should know about you?
Series introduction
For the next few weeks, we will examine our inner lives. So much of our effort goes into doing the right thing, looking the right way, following rules, and struggling to move forward. In these studies, we are going to focus on the part of you that only God can see and the challenges you face that only God can know.
Today we take the first step and consider what it means to be known by God. Our text comes from a song or “Psalm” written by King David more than 3000 years ago. While it was originally written in Hebrew, it has been widely translated into almost every known written language. Today we will read it from the “New International Version” (NIV).
Further research: Who Is King David? | What is the NIV?
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Reread Psalm 139:1-6
What do these verses tell us about God’s connection to us?
How might remembering that God sees us and knows us change the way we live and help us put into perspective our disappointments and frustrations?
Read Psalm 139:7-12
How might knowing that God is present be comforting during challenging times?
Read Psalm 139:13-18
How do these verses change the way you think about your physical weaknesses and vulnerabilities?
How do they help you understand your physical strengths and gifts?
Look again at verse 16.
What do you think it means that our lives are written in God’s book?
How might seeing our life as a fantastic story that unfolds as we live it affect the way we see setbacks, difficulties, and hardships?
Look at v. 17-18
What do these verses tell us about God?
How might this give us hope when our life feels confusing?
What do you all know about the story of Jesus' life? You might recall that it included many twists and turns, from popularity to rejection and from death to resurrection.
How might the twists and turns of His life give us perspective on the events of our lives?
Read v. 19-22
What do you think of this prayer? Why do you think it is included in this song?
How does the frustration expressed here help us grasp the real-life experience of a Child of God?
Read v. 23-24
What is an anxiety in your heart this fall?
How would opening your life to God like this change you?