What Is Suffering Producing In My Life?

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Overview of 1st Peter

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• What do these passages tell us about God/Jesus?
• What do these passages tell us about you and your life?
• What questions do you have concerning this passage?

The early believers were experiencing hardship and trials because of their devotion to Jesus. They were tempted to compromise in their faith, but Peter encourages them to allow their suffering to produce faith so they can stand unshakeably through their hardship. Peter broadens his encouragement to any kind of grief that a Christian faces in life. Ps Chee shared three truths from the passage that helps us see suffering produce faith in the hardships of our lives:

1. Perspective – turn your why into faith
2. Process – let it kill the impurities of our faith to produce pure faith
3. Precious – becoming gold in the hands of God

Discuss one or more of the following relevant questions.

• Reflect on the suffering and trials in your life. What were some of the questions you were asking God in your suffering? What has suffering produced in your life?
• What was your perspective when you went through suffering? How has God helped you process through the suffering in your life?
• Ps Chee shared that God doesn’t cause our suffering, but He can use it to produce faith. Do you agree or disagree? Discuss.
• Peter likens the purifying process of our faith in suffering to gold in a fiery furnace. Like impure gold, often our faith comes with mixed motives. Ps Chee shared three common impure ‘faiths’ that suffering exposes: intellectual, circumstantial and controlling ‘faith’. Can you identify with any of these ‘faith’ in your suffering? What does it mean for you to allow suffering to kill the ‘impurities’ of your faith in order to purify your faith?
• The Bible describes Jesus as a man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). How has this picture of Jesus comfort you in your suffering?
• Ps Chee shared that faith is precious because when we have pure faith then we become gold in the hands of God. How does pure faith help God accomplish His mission through our lives?

Ps Chee shared that God wants to produce something from our lives out of this season as a church. Come together as one group and share in a few sentences your answer to these questions.

• What does God want to produce out of this season for you personal life?
• What does God want to produce out of this season for us as a life group?