Read Isaiah 43:18-19.  Transformation that changes both you and the people around you in need, can only take place when you are willing to go to hard places to serve and love others.  When you allow God’s Spirit to use you, you become more than meets the eye.  By representing God to people you will be transformed and desperate people can be reclaimed.

• Have you ever served in a hard place?  What happened?
• What is your greatest fear about serving in hard or dark places?
• How much does ‘being uncomfortable’ keep you from stepping out to serve?  What might push you to do it anyway?

To be transformed you first must face your own brokenness.  Often when you serve or go to uncomfortable places to do something for God, your own brokenness and weaknesses are revealed.  Whether it’s lack of patience, lack of love, caring more about yourself than others, wanting to be in control, or something else, it’s not easy to face your own stuff.  But there’s something about serving others that brings God’s healing and love into your own life as well. 

• What are some personal weaknesses or brokenness that God revealed to you while serving or on mission?
• Name a specific change in thought or lifestyle because of a service or mission experience.

Read John 4:13-14.  The second step in transformation happens when you connect to God.  If you will open yourself up to God and involve God in every part of your life: your pain, weaknesses, fear, dreams and desires, God will lift you up and restore you as well as bring wholeness to your life.  God truly offers you living water in which to share, but also in which to share with others in need.

• What is keeping you from opening yourself up fully to God and God’s call on your life?
• Have you ever helped someone else quench their spiritual thirst?  Explain.
• Describe a time God healed you of pain in your life.  Have you ever used that to help others find healing?

Read Matthew 16:24-25.  Finally, transformation happens when we move out and serve.  True life is found only when give your life for the sake of God’s purposes.  It is in losing your life that you will find it and laying it down that Christ will give it back to you fully and transformed.  God is calling you to fight for the hearts and souls of people by loving, serving, and pointing them back to God.  It is with those in need in which you will find God and in those hard places that God does the greatest miracles.

• What is an area in your life that needs God’s transforming power?
• What is a hard place of service that God is calling you to?  Will you go?
• How is God calling you to move out and serve?