SYNOPSIS
The debut album from the singer who has enjoyed great success performing alongside other artists.
INTRODUCTION
This song will resonate with many young people, assuring them that everyone messes up, and that they should not be so hard on themselves. When they feel as though they have failed they need to accept God’s free gift of grace and a fresh start, and fully accept that the things they give to God have been dealt with.
THE SESSION
Begin the session by asking your young people to think about what it means to have a fresh start, or a new beginning. You could perhaps invite one of your leaders or young people to share a short testimony about this by means of an introduction.
TRACK 7: DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF
Play the track and provide copies of the lyrics for the young people to follow. Encourage them to look for the two opposing perspectives in the song: the sense of being held down by guilt and the advice to let go of it all. Ask your young people to think about how they relate to the song: do they tend to stand on one side of the line, or can they relate to that sense of being torn between the two opposing views?
Divide the young people into smaller groups, provide Bibles and ask them to look at some of the following passages: Psalm 139:8–12, Isaiah 38:17, Isaiah 43:25, Micah 7:18-19, Hebrews 9:6-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17- 18 and 1 John 1:9.
Ask the small groups to feedback what they have discovered from these verses about guilt and God’s forgiveness. Ask:
- What do we discover about God’s approach to the things that we do wrong?
- How should we respond to that?
- What do we do with the feelings of guilt that we have?
Help your young people to understand that any sense of guilt we are left with is not from God. He wants us to be free from the things we have done in the past to enjoy the fresh start that he has given us. We may need to change the way that we do something so that we don’t keep repeating the things we have done wrong, but we should not feel that weight on our consciences anymore.
Pray for the group as you bring the session to a close. There are lots of creative ways you can do this, such as writing things we have done wrong on paper and throwing it in the bin, shredding them to symbolise the way that God deals with these things or a handwashing station to symbolise having a fresh start. You may also wish to offer to pray with some of the young people individually.
