Verse 3: What practices/policies/institutions do we rely on in order to establish and keep peace and security? What do we personally rely on for our sense of peace and security? In what way can we be lulled into a false sense of peace and security?
Verse 4-8: Read Proverbs 6:6-15. What is the temptation of the sluggard? What befalls the sluggard? Have you fallen into a calamity in your life because you weren’t paying attention or weren’t sober-minded in the judgments you made over a period of time?
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.”
Proverbs 6:6-15 ESV
Verse 9-11: What’s the worst punishment you’ve ever had? What was the end outcome of your punishment? What do you imagine God’s wrath is like?
Verse 12-13: How do you show respect to people who aren’t respectable?
Have you ever bad-mouthed your leader? How do you demonstrate respect for leaders who aren’t respectable?
Oscar Wilde had a quote that went: “Some people cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” Are you a person who blesses others whenever you are with them or are people blessed whenever you’re gone?
Verse 14-15: Do you have an example of someone in your life that you have failed to admonish when you’ve seen them have un-Christlike behavior, failed to encourage, discouraged, or not had good intentions for? What’s an action you need to take this week to correct that relationship with that person?
Verse 16-18: Is there a circumstance in your life now that you are struggling through? How do we give thanks in all circumstances? Why would Paul give that advice? Isn’t it good to vent once in a while?
Verse 19-22: If you had a chance to help start a new church, what advice would you give to the people of that church in order to help them thrive? What do you think you would do the same as now? What would you do differently?