Week 7- Man of Integrity
MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.
1 On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the Lord, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
4 "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."
6 The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life."
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"
10 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
11 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
Job 2
What does this passage have to say about integrity?
Why is that important?
TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
1) What comes to your mind when you think of a “person of integrity”? What adjectives would you use to describe such a person? What words or phrases does God use to describe Job (v. 3)?
2) Satan believed that “a man will give all he has for his own life (v. 4). Why was God confident that Job would not do that? Why was Job not living like Satan would expect him to live? What enabled Job, a man born with a sinful nature, to live in such a way? (Remember what you learned from Ephesians 4:22-24 in the study from Week 5; review that passage, if necessary.)
WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
3) What does Job’s wife tell him to do (v. 9)? What is she asking him to abandon?
4) What is Job’s response to his wife (v. 10)? What does this teach you about integrity? Do you maintain your integrity only when things are going well for you? Only when you can see God’s blessings in the short-term outcomes of your life?
THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
5) What frustrating experience in your athletic life sometimes tempts you to have a selfish attitude or to abandon your commitment to integrity? Are there other people who (like Job’s wife) encourage you to be selfish and to turn from integrity? Take time now to pray that God would help you to be obedient in these areas, and commit to rightly responding to the words of others that tempt you to disobey God.
FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of integrity, and pray together.
· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about integrity this week, and to repeat some of those things. (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about integrity you’ve discussed, if necessary.)
· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about integrity this week...What does an athlete of integrity do?” Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of an athlete of integrity, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.
· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “athlete of integrity”, 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 integrity — 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 integrity or anything else), and pray together.
Not a member? Join Now
