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Everything Happens for a Reason
weekend in review
This week Rusty George took on the one of the most over-quoted sayings that people believe is in the Bible: “Everything happens for a reason.” This saying might seem comforting at first, but in the end often leaves people confused and questioning God. We looked at three aspects of this:
Does everything happen for a reason (meaning, does God cause everything to happen?)?
Why do we think it does?
What we can believe in.
WARM UP
Begin with some conversation, checking in on how people are doing. You can talk about whatever you’d like, but here are potential questions to get the conversation going.
Does your family have a favorite saying or two?
What is your favorite fall dessert?
DISCUSS
Select 5-6 questions from the list below to guide your discussion time.
Rusty referred to events in the lives of Moses, Esther, and Jesus as examples of how God was at work making things happen. Then Rusty spoke of Adam and Eve as well as David and Bathsheba getting themselves into trouble. What are the differences between those events? What are the similarities?
Have you ever written off the consequences of a foolish decision or a bad choice you made as God allowing, even wanting it to happen “for a reason”? Why do we come to this conclusion when, once we’ve found ourselves in a dilemma, we experience God helping us out?
Rusty’s third point was that as followers of Jesus, people who love God, love others, and want the same things God’s wants, we can certainly believe that God is willing and able to work good things in our lives. The most important thing to God is a person’s soul. Rusty stated that nothing can stop God’s ultimate plan. What does that mean to you?
Read Romans 8:28 in both KJV and NIV. Rusty shared how a misunderstanding of this verse has contributed to the belief that everything happens for good. In the NIV version we see the original meaning which is that God works for the good of those who love him. What does it mean to you to read that God is for you? If you are “for” someone or something, what sort of actions do you take regarding it or them?
Is God the central focal point of your life or does he get your leftovers?
Rusty talked about God being able to do something with the difficult situations we find ourselves in—providing a blessing that helps us and/or providing a lesson to be learned that benefits us in some way. Do you have a story of experiencing this that you’d like to share?
Who in your life needs to hear that no matter the challenges we face or have faced, it can be redeemed through Jesus? How can you encourage them this week?
During these months of coping with the pandemic, have you drawn closer to God or do you feel you’ve drifted further away?
WRAP UP & PRAYER
Share prayer requests and spend time praying for each other.
Take a few moments to share prayer requests and pray for one another.
Pray that we each might draw closer to God, keeping him as the focal point of our lives, resting in the knowledge that he is FOR us in every situation.