WEEK 3- Love and Confidence

MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.

     21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what he pleases Him.  23 And this is His        command:  to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.    24 Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them.  And this is how we know that He lives in us:  We know it by the Spirit He gave us.

1 John 3:21-24

     16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.  18 There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  19 We love because He first loved us.  20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  21 And He has given us this command:  Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:16-21

What does this passage have to say about confidence?

Why is that important?

TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

1) This passage promises that you can live confidently before God if you “obey His commands and do what pleases Him” (v. 22).  What specific commands does God give, in verse 23?  Are you living in obedience to those commands?

2) In what ways do you need to be more obedient to the commands of 1 John 3:23 in order to live more confidently?  In what situations do the actions and attitudes of your team need to change to allow you to be a more confident unit?

WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

3) What is “perfect love”, and what is the relationship between it and confidence? (v. 17-18)

4) Of what things are you fearful, and what do you need to do about this?

THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

5) What other action will be seen in a person who knows “perfect love”? (v. 21)

6) Does this describe you?  Your team?  (This can be a good measure of whether your confidence is the “real thing”.)

FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of confidence and pray together.

· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about confidence this week, and to repeat some of those things.  (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about confidence you’ve discussed, if necessary.)

· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about confidence this week...What does a confident athlete do?”  Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of confidence, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.

· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “confident athlete”, and be sure the list is displayed somewhere that is constantly visible, as a reminder to the team.

· Pray together as a team.  Encourage your athletes to pray for your team’s growth in regard to the discipline of confidence —   especially in relation to some of the issues and challenges that you discussed together this week.  Challenge them to also ask for forgiveness, when applicable. Give time for athletes to request prayer (regarding confidence or anything else), and pray together.