Hello my reader friends! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving seated around the table with your loved ones ❤️ This month has really been one of my eyes and heart being open to what it means to be seated with Christ. I’ve repeated the mantra “I am seated with Christ” at least a hundred times to myself this month! As life happened and problems arose and feelings went south I grabbed onto that truth like a life preserver! What a difference a single verb makes, right?! I hope this book has been a great encouragement and tool for you. I’m so excited to hear what you have to say about this book so without further adieu, here are this month’s questions:
Discussion Questions
*What image comes to mind when you picture being “seated with Christ”?
*Is there a table that you have been trying to earn a seat at? What would being seated at that table mean to you right now?
*What memories stand out to when you think of being excluded from a certain table? How do these memories affect you today?
*The author says that being seated at the table with Christ helps us to eliminate feelings of superiority, inferiority, discrimination, jealousy, and to embrace ourselves and others. How does this work?
*Heather discusses the struggles she had with affluence, appearance, and achievement. Do you relate to those struggles? How does knowing you are “seated with Christ” help you with those struggles?
*Have you ever felt truly beautiful? How does knowing that God is completely enthralled with your beauty make you feel? Do you know anyone who was not beautiful by the world’s standards but who was beautiful to you? What was it about them that made them beautiful to you?
*How does knowing you have a God who can meet all your needs change your thoughts towards material wealth? Or does it? What would change in your mind towards affluence if you did not think you needed a seat at the wealthy table?
*How would you describe abiding vs. achievement? How does a person move from achievement to abiding? Is it okay to be an achievement driven person? How does knowing you have already won the best prize change your motivations and drive?
*The author lists four hard but great questions we need to ask ourselves. Have you asked those questions of yourself? How does answering these questions help you to move forward into a greater relationship with God?
*How do seated people live? What things do we need to replace in order to truly live seated?
*Do you feel that you are available for God to use? What does making yourself available look like practically?
Scripture for the Month
2 Samuel 9
Luke 15
Psalm 139
Ephesians 2:6
Hebrews 10:1-25
Prayer for the Month
Father God, thank You for giving us a place at Your table. We can stop our search for a seat at the other tables the world offers us. We can know we are included and we belong at Your table. Would you help us to live seated? And out of this great place, please help us to live as Your ambassadors knowing we are sent on the greatest mission ever. As we live our lives be at the forefront of our thoughts and minds so that we don’t fall into comparison but rather see others as having their own seat at the table. Father thank You that we don’t have to search for a place to belong because You have already given us a place. Thank You for this great gift.. I pray it changes the way we live and see our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
For Next Month
Check out THIS POST for all the details for December!
After reading this book, I realized any time I previously came across Ephesians 2:6, I either had skimmed over the “seated with Christ” part altogether or saw it in the figurative sense, in that we have been simply welcomed into His family. But when the author emphasized that ‘seated’ is a past tense verb, suggesting something has already happened to us (paraphrased from Page 26), I had to stop and read the verse again.
Being “raised up with Christ” has been a fairly easy concept for me to understand; of course the dying to self has been more challenging. 🤪 But understanding that I’m “seated with Christ” right now in this life is more difficult for me to grasp. I think because “we remain in a physical body in a material world” (Page 27) and continue to not only commit but also witness sin, it’s so difficult for us to believe we’re in fact also in the heavenly realms.
So much of God and His ways are mysterious and incomprehensible. That’s not a bad thing. But it’s an uncomfortable thing for humans: we like what we understand, and therefore try to shape our ideas, beliefs, etc. onto that which is unknown. Maybe instead of focusing on the “how” regarding our seated position, we should appreciate the “where.” 😉
Recently, God has been repeatedly using the Prodigal Son story to shine light on my pride, and it honestly made me smile (because I knew God was talking to me) when the story showed up in this book. The older brother in the story, who I unfortunately relate to, didn’t appreciate where he was. “The older brother forgot that he was seated…[He] had the party every day. He could enjoy his father every day.” (Page 58)
There are endless reasons why we get tripped up and forget where we’re seated. Insecurity is probably at the core of most of them. We see it with many brothers in the Bible: Cain and Abel; Jacob and Esau; and Joseph and his brothers to name a few. If Cain, Jacob, and Joseph’s brothers were secure in their seats with Christ, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so worried about where their brothers were seated and what God had assigned to them.
The phrase, “Stay in your lane” is what comes to mind when I think about being seated with Christ, as it relates to purpose. It’s so easy to get caught up in who everyone else is and what they’re all doing. But that’s where the enemy wants us: distracted and focused on anything but Christ! He, I believe, knows God has prepared good works for us to do, and he wants to keep us from doing them. So he uses any means he can to keep us off track and thus, off task. When I’m worried that my skills, marriage, kids, money, lifestyle, etc. isn’t as seemingly good as another’s, I become discontent about my seat. As a result, it becomes more difficult for me to be available for what God has for me and effectively used by Him.
For most of my life, I have desired and often sat at the Achievement table. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being an achievement-driven person, but it’s the why behind the achieving that needs to be looked at. For me, achievement meant successful standing in life as a whole, and only recently did I realize how this mentality transferred to my relationship with God. As long as I didn’t do certain things, I believed I would continue having a good standing – or a good seat – with God. I’ve done many good things genuinely because I wanted to, believing also that that’s what God’s wanted me to do. However, it goes back to my motive, my attitude. A lot of the time I was seeing things incorrectly, not understanding that: “Seated people simply enjoy work as a pleasing sacrifice, an act of worship, and as a way to enjoy God.” (Page 113)
I may have been enjoying the work I was doing, but I can honestly say I wasn’t always doing it to enjoy God. Most of the time I was patting myself on the back for the good work I believed I had done.
It’s crazy how we can seemingly be “available to God,” and yet we have our own terms as to what we want that to look like. I think one of the best Bible verses discussing what it looks like to die to self and be available for God to work in and through us is John 3:30, which says: “He must become greater; I must become less.”
As powerful and thought-provoking as this verse is though, what does that look like practically?! 🤪 For me, it means spending time with God – real, intentional, consistent time – so I can turn my gaze to Him (and away from myself). It means asking God to help me not be half- or cold-hearted towards those difficult people He’s placed in my life. It means leaning into His nudges and willing myself to be used by and through Him to exemplify humility and kindness.
The author refers to one’s walk with Christ as being glorious rather than glamorous. “We’d rather minister in great (or at least more exciting) ways rather than the ordinary mile.” (Page 160) But the ordinary, simple mile is where we actually live. Glamour may appear real and fulfilling, but it is only an illusion. Furthermore, ordinary is where we can better hear God’s voice. Ordinary is where we can embrace our own seat, without comparing it to others’. Ordinary is where we can 1) adore Him for so many reasons, including that He loves us and has given each of us a purpose; 2) have access to Him, approaching confidently because we know He will hear and provide for us; and 3) abide in Him, “continually setting Jesus before [us] in [our minds].” (Page 110)
Our ordinary lives become glorious, however, not for the reason we may initially think. Yes, it’s great when we’re doing what God wants us to, but the real reason our lives become glorious is because God is at work period. The glory isn’t our own but His – and yet He allows us to share in His glory:
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.“ (Romans 8:16-17)
As believers in Christ, we have been adopted into God’s family – He sees us as His own because we are His. Therefore, our positions have been sealed; and our seats are secure. Amen and amen! 🤗