prismaticbleed | little rock bible study week 1 (Reply)

1. How would you define faith, hope, and love in your own words?
FAITH = TRUST in God as a PERSON, not an impersonal force. Trust in His GOODNESS & MERCY as well as His Righteous Justice. Believing that He IS my Father & DOES care. EVERYTHING He says is TRUE & TRUSTWORTHY.
HOPE = God's Promises NEVER fail. I KNOW He wants the BEST for my soul & ACTIVELY works for my salvation & sanctification. So regardless of circumstance I can cling to that. The more I learn of God by experience & revelation, the more grounds I have FOR hope.
LOVE = The total gift of self to another. Love is merciful, compassionate, devoted, self-sacrificial, generous, honest, tenderhearted, etc. It is also powerful & protective & fights for righteousness for the good of others, especially the poor.

2. How is our understanding of faith, hope, and love influenced by our understanding of Who God Is and what God does?
God IS Love. He makes covenants & Promises WITHOUT prior "deserving" or request. He KNOWS our needs & RISES to meet them. God LISTENS & CARES and He KNOWS us completely; He actively works for healing & reconciliation in relationships. We KNOW what love is SOLELY because of GOD modeling it to us. God is completely UNSELFISH; He loves PEOPLE, in RELATIONSHIPS = community, family, nation, friends, etc. God accompanies us, especially those rejected by others. God makes the first move to help & save us. We cannot help but respond in love to such Love when His grace enters our hearts through it. We realize He is entirely deserving of our faith, and all our hopes are fulfilled in Him alone.

3. How are faith and hope connected with each other?
"Hope is the fire that fuels our faith."
"Faith is the assurance of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things not seen." Faith is substance & conviction concerning what is not (yet) apparent or visible. "Faith is the firm assurance that what we cannot see actually exists." Faith is CONFIDENCE rooted in TRUST in GOD Who CANNOT lie or deceive, and Whose Word IS Truth. So when we have faith in His Promises, even if they take decades to be realized, we wait in HOPE because we TRUST their veracity & perfect timing regardless. Also our faith is anchored in WHO GOD IS. We KNOW He IS Good & Kind & True & Just & Loving, etc. So we CAN HOPE for ALL of those things FROM Him, at all times. We have FAITH in His NAME.

4. How does God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-9 reveal God as the God of the Family?
The Blessing is attached to, and based on, DESCENDANTS. God promises to make Abraham a "great nation," SO THAT they will bless ALL other nations-- ALL the "families of the earth"! God calls Abraham OUT of "his father's house" only in order to make Abraham the "father" of countless "houses" through the ages. God promises to bless Abraham but those blessings necessarily "overflow" to those around him. God deals with people always in the big picture context of relationships, all the way to common humanity, but always as kindred, as individuals beloved & cared for particularly. Lastly, the entire blessing hinges on two old folks and their promised child. The basic family unit, humble & simple, becomes the locus of the plan of salvation itself.

5. The commentary suggests that Abraham was willing to believe in God's promises because they addressed the deepest desire of his and Sarah's hearts. Does this explanation resonate with you? Has God ever given you such a promise?
I think so. I just "want to be good." I want to be forgiven. I want to make restitution for the evil I've done. I want to glorify God with my life AND my death. And I think JESUS is that Promise for me.
...Honestly my "problem" is that I DON'T really "desire" ANYTHING BUT JESUS, but at the cost of DENYING "desire" in ANY human specifics? And that's unfair TO Jesus. But I'm so out of touch and AFRAID of my own CAPACITY TO "desire" things that I WON'T admit them... and in doing so, I cut myself off FROM God's Promises to MEET them??

6. In what way does the second interaction between God and Abraham (Gen 15:1-21) demonstrate that God's promise of land and offspring is a completely free gift, with nothing required from Abraham?
ALL the language is 'I WILL" and "I AM." The only thing He tells Abraham to DO are "do NOT fear," "count the stars if you CAN," to bring the animals to Him FOR PROOF, and to "KNOW" the TRUTH of God's Plan even amidst trials. NONE of this is "or else." God is just lavishing blessings on Abraham because God is working His Plan of Redemption THROUGH Abraham's lineage. It's ALL His Sovereign Will. Abraham just has to BELIEVE this, which he does. But God gives it freely, because He CHOOSES to; no human frailty can stop His loving & good Purposes, nor can any human ever "merit" God's gifts to begin with. This is both humbling & liberating.

7. Would you characterize your faith as faith in a God Who listens? When have you experienced God listening? Have you ever felt that God was not listening?
I KNOW God listens and this has been PROVEN in the long-term EVERY TIME. My "problem" is that God frequently works in SILENCE and at the "LAST SECOND." He always responds, but not in the ways I expect. I feel He "isn't listening" only when I'm scared & lost & confused and want a "clear quick answer" but that doubt is always brief-- God will ALWAYS give SOME sort of "sign" that He HEARS and CARES and IS working even now, I just need to TRUST and be PATIENT and STOP trying to control & direct everything. Ironically God proves His "listening" most in saving me from crises?? I would be dead a hundred times over if He hadn't intervened and answered my pleas VERY FAST. I know He's listening. More than that even, I know He CARES and He is listening ACTIVELY and He WILL do good for my soul.

8. Read Galatians 3:6-9, where Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 and explains that "those who have faith" are "children of Abraham." After reading these passages from Genesis and Galatians, what does it mean to you to be a "child of Abraham"?
When God points at the dark skies of my life and says "count the stars," He's not just giving me numbers. He's giving me HOPE. Sometimes I can't see ANY stars, but I KNOW they're up there, like I KNOW God is always there, their Creator & Namer. I too can have faith in God to "do the impossible" if He SAID He would anyway. For me, God HAS promised to save me through faith in Jesus, to never leave me, to sanctify me, to redeem me DAILY. God HAS called me to be PART of HIS FAMILY; I just need to TRUST that He MEANS it, because He DOES. Scripture is my anchor of PROOF.

9. Jacob sees the face of God both in a time of struggle and in a moment of family reconciliation (Gen 32:23-33; 33:1-11). Can you think of a time in your life when God has been revealed as a God of reconciliation after a time of struggle? How has this experience shaped your faith and hope in God going forward?
I think this applies to my hospital stay in 2024 when I worked so hard for MONTHS to be on better terms with my mom, and it wasn't until that final time period of intense "wrestling" that we finally had a breakthrough. In general though this feels like the "story of our System," especially the struggle of the Cores vs. the somafoni. Honestly our sole hope IS the knowledge that our God IS a God of reconciliation, so although we do still struggle within ourself, we STRIVE & HOPE for reconciliation & true peace based on charity & truth, and we have FAITH that it WILL happen if we keep the faith, because GOD WANTS IT. He "must"; He does not desire bitter conflict. We struggle with our brothers, too, with the lies & ideologies keeping us apart, but here too we have our hope in God for reconciliation. Our problem is that we aren't wrestling enough.

10. What insight about faith or hope can you share with your group after studying and reflecting on these stories from Genesis?
Faith is in God's GOODNESS. It's NOT NEGATIVE. We have faith in GOD'S CHARACTER, in WHO HE IS-- and so we have faith in His LOVE & HELP & MERCY. We don't "hope" for deliverance "FROM" God; we hope FOR GOD!

Notes from group discussion:
"Pray, to get out of God's way"
"You cannot stand in the way of the Cross"
"Go to where your faith is being challenged to GROW, NOT where your fears are being fed"??

Look up: Rosary of Abandonment (Surrender Rosary); Mary Undoer of Knots Rosary