Chapter 6

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%206&version=ESV

STUDY

• What are the 5 things the author mentions as part of the elementary doctrine of Christ?

• Sum up verses 4-6 in your own words.

• What do you think about the parallel the author makes with the crop that produces thorns and thistles?

• What does verse 10 say that God is not?

• What did God say to Abraham?

APPLICATION

• How sure are you of the 5 things mentioned as the elementary doctrine of Christ?

• What do you think about verses 4-6? 

• Do you trust God's faithfulness and His promises to us, given to us by His Word?  How can you be sure He is faithful?

PRUNING ME

        "For God is not unjust..." (verse 10).  Do you believe that?  Did you believe it...when He took your father's life? Or your child's life? Or when you or your spouse lost their job?  Or when you lost your home?  Or when you failed a class, when you worked so hard to pass?  Or when your best friend moved away? Or when you couldn't get pregnant?  Or when your spouse had an affair?

        God seems just when everything in your life is going great.  Right?  But how do you respond to Him when things seem difficult, or unfair?  Do you still think of Him as faithful, a God who provides?  Does your faith falter when circumstances in your life are challenging?  Do you cry out to God, "Why are you doing this?  This is unfair!  You said you would provide...!"  You're right...He DID say He would provide.  One example is in Matthew 6:25-32: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what youw ill eat or waht you will drink, nor about your body, what your will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more tahn clothing/.  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all."  

    I'm not talking about God providing the winning lottery ticket, a rich husband or nothing bad to ever happen in your life... but He will provide what you need, and He will even provide some of your wants.  Remember that when He allows circumstances in your life, like: the death of a close family member or friend, a job loss, an affair in your marriage, etc.,  He will use it for His glory.  Don't be like Abram and Sarai who wanted to have children so badly- especially a son who could carry on the family name.  They probably thought God to be unjust because they hadn't gotten pregnant and they had been asking God for a child for many years. He hadn't answered their prayers when they had hoped. Then, when they were very old in age- much too old to bear children, they were told by God, that they would bear a son.   Because God didn't work fast enough for them, and maybe were even partly in disbelief, they thought He wasn't going to follow through on His word.  So, they took matters into their own hands and Abram slept with Sarai's servant, Hagar, and bore a son named Ishmael.  If they had only waited, and trusted that God would provide what He said!  Shortly after Hagar conceived Ishmael, Sarai got pregnant with Isaac, even at her old age. 

    Are you going to trust God with His way, His timing and His perfect plan?  Or are you going to take things into your own hands and make things more complicated, steer yourself in the wrong direction or make bad decisions all because you think He is not going to follow through on what He said?  God is just, and He will provide for your needs.  It might not be in the way you think, or how you think- but He is just and He is faithful.   Not only will God provide for your needs, but also the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Cling to these promises, and if God tells you something that He is going to do for you or through you, TRUST Him, for "God is not unjust"!

• Leanne