Completely Obsessed with Christ

A word from Devon Vaughn....

This summer I had the opportunity to lead an awesome group of middle and high school girls through a new six-week Bible study by HayleyDiMarco called Obsessed. This Bible study was all about moving our obsessions off of the things of this world and becoming completely obsessed with Christ. If you couldn’t be with us on Thursday nights this summer, here’s a little recap of some important things we talked about so you can learn from what we’ve been studying!

The first week was entitled “The Anatomy of the Obsessed,” and Hayley gives us a description of what our obsessions look like. She says to be obsessed is to be, “relentless in your attention to or pursuit of something.” The girls shared some things they could define as obsessions in their life: sports, dance, school, friends. And we talked about that while those are all good and positive things in our life, when they become our obsessions, we make idols out of them and place them in front of Christ. We talked about ways we could work to move our obsessions off of things of this world, whether good or bad, and move them onto Christ. One great scripture that was included for this week was Matthew 13:44, the parable of the man who found treasure in a field, reburied it, and went and sold everything he had to buy the field with the treasure. The treasure in this parable represents Jesus, and we are called to give everything we have to serve him: time, money, future plans...everything. Hayley says that, “obsession requires commitment and devotion.” And these are two main factors required to grow in our relationship with Christ. We must be committed and devoted to reading our Bible, having prayer time, and following out the Lord’s commands in our everyday life.

The rest of the weeks followed the pattern of talking about some major obsessions we all have in our life and how we can turn those to Christ. One week we talked about being obsessed with loss. The girls talked about how fear and worry can become a sin in their life because it means they have not placed their full faith and trust in the Lord. We also talked about being obsessed with gain. Being obsessed with gain can manifest itself in many ways in our life, but some of the ways we talked about were being coveting other people’s belongings or being too indulgent. We also talked about what it meant to be obsessed with relief or comfort, and how sometimes the Lord brings us to hard or uncomfortable situations in our lives in order to bring himself glory or teach us something new.

The last week of study was about how we can take all of these obsessions – loss, gain, relief, or anything else – and turn them into an obsession with God. Man’s primary purpose in life is to glorify God, and that should be our main goal in everyday life.  Glorifying God means to acknowledge Him, adore Him, love Him, and serve Him. One important concept we talked about is that when we become fully obsessed with God, we become less important. John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  Being obsessed with God means that we give everything to Him and for Him. We focus daily on bringing Him glory in every situation we’re faced with, and let all of our other desires, worries, or activities pale in comparison to our love and desire to serve Christ.

I so enjoyed getting to lead this Bible study this summer and spend some time with our sweet girls! I encourage you guys to grab a girl that was in this Bible study and ask them what they learned or got out of it. Also, this would be a great personal Bible study for anyone to do!

- Devon

Thanks, Devon! What a great recap of this summer and charge to seek Christ with the commitment and devotion of obsession. I cannot believe that Devon and Payton will be finishing up their last days as summer interns this week. What joy they have been to me personally and I know to our Girls Ministry this summer throughout all the great opportunities we've had! A couple of Sundays ago I got to sit in on a Sunday School class that they were teaching and I couldn't help but smile the entire time. I have been with these girls since they were sophomores in High School and to now had the extended time of the summer to pour into them, disciple them, serve along side them and be encouraged myself by them...it's truly been a honor and a blessing. These are rare jewels making headway for the Kingdom and I couldn't be more excited for what's to come! I hope all of you will take time this week to show your appreciation and as well as commit to pray for them as they begin their sophomore year in college in just a couple of weeks!