New Year's Prayer Bible Study

Before doing this study, you may want to read My New Year's Prayer. This study reinforces the 12 requests listed in that prayer. Our need for:

♥ God's Word (Psalm 119:18).  

♥ God's voice (Proverbs 8:32-34). 

♥ A focus on the future (Philippians 3:13-14).

 ♥ Awareness of God's love (Ephesians 3:17-19).  

♥ God's peace (Philippians 4:6-7).   

♥ Trust (Proverbs 3:5-6).

♥ Transformation (Romans 12:1-2).

♥ Forgiveness (Colossians 3:13).

♥ Repentance to God (1 John 1:9-10).  

♥ Repentance to others (James 5:16).  

♥ God's purposes (Ephesians 2:10).
   
♥ Wholehearted devotion (Philippians 3:7-14). 

 

Bible Study

Let God speak to your purposes, values, motives, and life goals through this passage written by the Apostle Paul. Then answer the questions below the passage. 

Philippians 3:7-14: But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

1. What were Paul's "gains" that he gave up for Christ (verses 7-8)?

Reading 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:10 can help you answer this question. How would you summarize this 2 Corinthians passage?

Have you given up anything because you are a Christian? Are there other things you think God is asking you to give up?

2. What attitude keeps us from wallowing in self-pity when we face difficulties in life? 

Colossians 1:24: I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. (NLT)

Acts 20:24: I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

copyright 2016, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated and edited in 2020