IT’S NOT HARD – All you need is on the  Living Room webpage at https://marjabergen.com/support-groups

There you’ll find a long list of DEVOTIONALS FOR GROUP USE. Please don’t miss it. They provide almost everything you need to lead your group through discussion with prompts to help move the discussion along.

All you need to complete the meeting is to give time for open sharing of what is in the hearts of each member – things that might be troubling them, news about their life, etc.

You could finish with prayer for each person.

How can you find these group devotionals?

Access them by going to https://marjabergen.com/support-groups
Scroll down and go to “Devotionals.”
Find an item marked “Devotionals for Group Use”
Download and open it
You will see a long list of devotionals to choose from for you meeting. Double click and you’ll be all set.

An example:

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO HARD TIMES?

In his book The Land Between author Jeff Manion uses the story of the Israelites’ journey through the Sinai Desert as a metaphor for being in an undesired transitional space – a time of testing, a trial. After generations of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites travel through the wilderness (the land between) toward the Promised Land. They crave the food of their former home and despise their present environment. They are unable to go back and incapable of moving forward. They did a lot of complaining. Yet their forty years in the desert were intended to transform them from people of slavery to people of God.

We too go through wilderness experiences, every time we have a time of prolonged waiting, confusion, illness or emotional problems.
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Are you going through a wilderness experience right now? Do you want to tell us about it?

Manion says that “many seasoned spiritual advisers propose that this is the only space in which radical, transformational growth occurs. God intends for us to emerge from this land radically reshaped. But the process of transformational growth will not occur automatically. Our response to God while in the Land Between is what will determine whether our journey through this desert will result in deep, positive growth or spiritual decline.”

We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we will respond to the situation and to God. Do we complain, ignoring how God has been there for us in the past?…Or will we cry out to God, knowing he’s there, knowing he’s concerned?

Too often we become a victim to our disease and don’t trust God to help us act. Too often we allow life to happen to us and don’t take steps to do anything. We allow life to control us, instead of placing it in God’s hands. If we trust God, He will help us make the best of a situation. And, quite possibly, our faith will grow in the process.
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Can you think of a past wilderness experience that transformed you? How did your response to it help?

Are you going through a hard time right now? Have you voiced the way you felt about it to God? You can talk to God the way Moses did.
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Write a prayer to God telling Him exactly what you are experiencing.
We can have hope for the future if we can remember how God has been faithful to us in the past.
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Write five examples of how God has provided for you in the past.
When you’re passing through a wilderness experience, more than anything, God wants you to trust Him.
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Perhaps the most powerful prayer you can pray is, “I trust you.” Take some time to quietly tell God this. You might even hear Him respond to you. What is He saying?