Charles Brammall on NOT being the problem in your Bible study group.
Small prayer and Bible study groups can be places of great encouragement and comfort, or a great bane. How can we make our small groups places of succour and grace?
If you’re married and your spouse is in a home group, encourage (but don’t pressure) them to go to it regularly, even when they’!’re tired or don’t feel like it. This applies to us if we’re single as well. My wife Chiq sometimes doesthis with me, and vice versa. But be gracious. And model it in your own regular attendance. Be honest with each other if you don!t feel like going, but try to make the effort anyway.
If either of you feels like you have been wronged by someone in your group (or at church), encourage (but don!t pressure) your to love their (short term, “micro”) enemies, Mat 5:43-45:
“(Love) your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”Because “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people,what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”, Mat 5:46-47.
This is a difficult and countercultural thing to do, and probably the unique and most distinctive thing about Christianity. I think we Christians can find this hard to do. I know I do. Michael Hart’s book “The 100: Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History”, speaks to this. It is not a ranking of the best known or most powerful people, but of the most influential. The person he ranks at number one is not Jesus. Nor is Jesus at number two. Jesus comes in at number three.
Hart’s reason for this? In his experience, the followers of Jesus (unlike those of Mohammed- number one), don!t obey His commands. Jesus’ followers don!t follow His difficult instructions, this one being the prime example.
He says Christians don!t love their enemies, pray for those who persecute them, and love those who don!t love them. Our home groups are a good
place to start attempting prayerfully to do this (even just with our micro, short term “enemies”- we’re unlikely to have obvious and hateful ones in our small groups).
As each of us strives to do this our small groups can become places of great grace and solace.