DISCIPLESHIP
RESOURCES FOR GROWING IN YOUR FAITH
GOD’S WORD
Life is busy and it can often be difficult to find time to set aside for God. But in the midst of the busyness, God calls us to himself. At North Park, we believe that God’s Word is primary and that the best way to know God’s will for your life is to spend time in His Word. But we also realize the importance of community! It is much easier to daily spend time in God’s Word when other people are reading the same passage as you, keeping you accountable to read, and learning right alongside of you. Because of that, we have designed a reading plan that goes along with the sermons for every sermon series we preach. That way you can read the Bible, discuss with friends and family, and be challenged by God’s Word in the sermon.
RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES
To help you engage in the Bible with your children, we provide family devotionals to go along with the week’s Bible lesson. You can view the archive of the devotionals or contact our children’s ministry director to join our weekly mailing list.
PRAYER
Sometimes people have too rigid of a definition of prayer. Often times, our prayer life is limited to our requests. We come to God with our list of things that are wrong in our life our the lives of others. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are encouraged to “pray continually.” God is always with us, we don’t have to limit our prayers to a certain time of the day or to the requests that we have.
That means that you can pray on your way to the meeting with that co-worker you don’t like. You can pray when you are frustrated and overwhelmed at work. You can pray on your way to school that God would give you patience with the other student that teases you. You can pray a prayer of thanks and rejoicing when something good happens. You can pray a prayer of thanks and rejoicing when something bad happens, because even in the midst of the suffering, God is still good.
The point is, prayer should be a part of who we are, not just a part of our day. If you are new to this idea, just try it today. Set alarms on your phone throughout the day and when they go off, pray. Praise God, thank God, ask for God’s guidance, ask for forgiveness, pray for someone that is on your heart, pray for your current situation, etc. Just pray! In the difficult moments, Romans 8:26-27 says that even when we don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. We have the great privilege that when we draw near to God, he draws near to us (James 4:8)
SERVICE
God has given us Spiritual Gifts for the edification of the body. In other words, he has given us gifts so we can serve. By serving, we help the church operate at full capacity because everyone had different gifts and abilities. In our membership class, we talk about how God has uniquely shaped each of us. He has given each of us:
Spiritual Gifts
Heart (things we care about)
Abilities
Personality
Experiences
God uses each of those things uniquely as we serve Him and get plugged in to the local church. God has given you gifts, passions, abilities, and experiences to be used by Him for His glory. And the awesome thing about that is, when we truly serve God through our gifting, we experience blessing as well. If you are attending North Park and would like to know how you can get plugged in to serving in the church, attend our new connections class or talk to one of our pastors.
COMMUNITY
As mentioned in the earlier section, community is of utmost importance. God has created us for community. It can be difficult to grow in your walk with God on your own with no support. That is why we encourage those that attend North Park to plug in to a Life Group and also consider joining a D-group to grow deeper in their walk with the Lord and in their community with others.