Read 1 Samuel 16.1-13. What does this text tell you about the character of God? What does it reveal about the love of God?
Read 1 Samuel 7-8. What was Samuel’s role in Israel? Why did Israel so desperately want a king? Why did God relent and allow them to have a king?
Read 1 Samuel 13:14. What does it mean today to be, “a man or woman after God’s own heart?” How does the one after God’s own heart love, serve, care, forgive, and give? How does the one after God’s own heart receive?
When Jesse introduces his sons to Samuel he chooses not to bring in David from the flocks. Why?
Read Psalm 27.10. Years later, David’s Psalm expresses his heart. If you were to write a Psalm today, what would you note about your family, and about God’s faithfulness?
John Eldredge notes that men receive their identity from their fathers and their sense of worthiness from the mothers. How do you resonate with that belief? What can happen to a person who does not receive these kinds of parental blessings? Consider your own story, where or when have you experienced a “father wound?” How have you experienced healing in this place of deep hurt?
How might David have received this kind of wound? How was Jesus blessed by His Heavenly Father? How have you experienced blessing by your Heavenly Father?
What does it mean to you that you live in God’s Kingdom? How is His will being accomplished “in your home as in heaven?”
Read and reflect on Romans 8:14-17. How do these truths encourage you? How do they challenge you? How do they bring you to a place of rest?
