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    Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind
    Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind
    Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind
    Ebook84 pages58 minutes

    Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind

    By Juanita Ryan

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    About this ebook

    The purpose of this study guide is to seek answers to questions such as how can we learn to live centred in God's loving presence, in a way that allows all our activity to flow from that centre? How can we experience this change of heart that will allow us to know God's presence with us in the midst of the busyness of our lives?
    The answers are taken from Scripture. We will listen as Jesus calls us to live with eyes wide open to what matters most in life, even as we entrust ourselves to God's care so we can live in the present, where God is with us, providing for us. We will hear the invitation to draw the strength we need for the day from God, the Source of all life. We will learn to open ourselves throughout the day to God as we seek God's wisdom, express our gratitude and begin to rest and rely more deeply in God 's presence with us. We will explore ways of conversing with God in the midst of the whirlwind of life and come to see our day's work as a labour of love for God and as the joyful service of kneeling before all others with Jesus.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIVP
    Release dateNov 19, 2015
    ISBN9781785064203
    Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind
    Author

    Juanita Ryan

    Juanita Ryan is a clinical nurse specialist with an MSN in psychiatric mental health nursing. She has taught mental health nursing at Bethel University, Rio Hondo Community College and Biola University. She is currently a therapist in private practice at Brea Family Counseling Center in Brea, California. She is the coauthor of The Twelve Steps: A Spiritual Kindergarten and the author or coauthor of over thirty InterVarsity Press Bible studies.

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      Book preview

      Busyness - Juanita Ryan

      A LifeBuilder Bible Study

      Busyness

      Finding God in the Whirlwind

      8 studies for individuals or groups

      Juanita Ryan

      With Notes for Leaders

      Scripture Union is an international Christian charity working with churches in more than 130 countries.

      Thank you for purchasing this book. Any profits from this book support SU in England and Wales to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to children, young people and families and to enable them to meet God through the Bible and prayer.

      Find out more about our work and how you can get involved at:

      www.scriptureunion.org.uk (England and Wales)

      www.suscotland.org.uk (Scotland)

      www.suni.co.uk (Northern Ireland)

      www.scriptureunion.org (USA)

      www.su.org.au (Australia)

      ISBN 978 1 78506 420 3

      First published in the United States by InterVarsity Press 2015.

      © Juanita Ryan

      First published in the United Kingdom © Scripture Union 2015.

      This e-book edition published 2015; last updated October 2015.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Scripture Union.

      The right of Juanita Ryan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Anglicisation copyright © 1979, 1984, 1989. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Cover image credit: ooyoo/istockphoto

      Contents

      GETTING THE MOST OUT OF BUSYNESS

      1 Live in the Present with Eyes Wide Open Matthew 6:19-34

      2 Receive Strength for the Day from God Isaiah 40:25-31

      3 Seek and Live in God’s Wisdom James 1:1-5, 17; 3:13-17

      4 Express Gratitude Throughout the Day Philippians 4:4-9

      5 Rest with and Rely on God Mark 6:30-46

      6 Remain in Conversation with God Psalm 16

      7 Labor in Love Colossians 2:6, 20-23; 3:1-17

      8 Serve with Joy John 13:1-17; 15:9-12

      Leader’s Notes

      Getting the Most Out of Busyness

      How have you been? a friend asks. Busy, we say. And it is usually true. We are almost always busy.

      For many of us much of our busyness is necessary to our survival or to our own and others’ well-being. For some of us, our busyness may include activities of caring for or serving others.

      But for many of us some portion of our busyness may also be self-imposed. We may get caught up in endless attempts to track and consume the information overload at our fingertips and on our many screens. Or we may be driven to achieve some form of status or success through long hours of working or tasking. Or we may be respond­ing to internal and external pressures to gain approval from others or from God by doing or serving endlessly.

      Both the good and necessary things in our lives and the self-imposed busyness of overdoing or overconsuming may be creating pressure and tension in our lives, robbing us of peace of mind and interfering with an awareness of God’s presence with us. We may be left feeling empty, unfulfilled and hungry for spiritual nurture that will sustain us and guide us.

      In the midst of the whirlwind of our lives, however, it may seem impossible to make time to focus beyond the noise and activities of the daily demands on our time. We may find ourselves longing for a greater awareness of God with us in the midst of it all, but asking ourselves how we can possibly add one more thing to our to-do list.

      But our relationship with God is not meant to be one more thing to do. It is not meant to be just another demand on our time and energy. Rather, our relationship with God is meant to be the center from which our life’s activities flow. God’s presence with us is the center, the source, the light of our lives, providing the peace, the strength, the wisdom, the joy, the companionship and the purpose we seek. In his book Making All Things New Henri Nouwen writes:

      Jesus does not respond to our worry-filled way of living by saying we should not be so busy. . . . He does not tell us what we do is unimportant, valueless, or useless. . . . Jesus’ response to our worry-filled lives is quite different. He asks us to shift the point of gravity, to relocate the center of our attention, to change our priorities. Jesus wants us to move from the many things to the one necessary thing. . . . Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even

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