This is the first "Walk in Faith" lesson for high school girls. You can print this document and use it with the Video lesson.

1. LESSON 1:
Thanksgiving and Prayer
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with
joy because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now
Philippians 1:4-5 NIV
Step Up: Introductory Activity
Have you ever gotten mail? Were you excited? What did you hope to find a bill or a personal letter from a
friend? Why?
How about on social media, have you ever scrolled past an ad and then go a notification for a message from a
friend? Which meant more to you? Why?
We like to get personal messages from people who are important to us. The book we are going to study over
the next few weeks is a letter from a man named Paul to his friends, Christians in a church in Phillipi.
Step In: Lesson
In the Introductory activity you had a chance to think through how you feel about getting personal messages
from friends. The book we are going to study over the next weeks is a letter Paul wrote to his friends. At this
point in time Paul was in prison for telling people about Jesus. We will talk about that more next week but for
now it is important to know that Paul considered encouraging the believers in Philippi important even though
he was in jail.
Read Philippians 1:4-5. Paul starts his letter by telling the people how he’s been praying for them. How does
Paul pray for the people? That’s right with joy! Take a minute and think about what that means. What is joy?
Look up the word in the dictionary, or better yet do a word study (instructions on a word study can be found at
the end of this lesson.) If you were to describe joy to someone what would you say? Write your answer on the
lines below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Who, in your life, brings you joy? People like family, friends, ministry leaders can bring us joy. The people of
Philippi brought Paul great joy because they were also followers of Jesus and were working to spread the good
news of the gospel. He encouraged the people to keep doing good work for God.
What are ways you can do good works for God? (See Ephesians 2:10). These can be things like sharing with
your friends about Jesus and the things you’re learning through church, small groups, or Sunday School. It can
be praying to God and growing in your relationship with Him. You can also read the Bible to continue learning
about the great things God has done.
In our prayers, we often bring requests to God and ask Him to do things for us. This isn’t a bad way to pray but
it’s not the only way we should pray either. When we pray to God, we should also thank him for the things he’s
done in our lives and is doing in the lives of others. When Paul prayed to God with joy about the Philippians, he
was thankful for the work they were doing to spread the gospel and living for Christ. Have you ever prayed
with joy for someone else?

2. In our prayers, we often bring requests to God and ask Him to do things for us. This isn’t a bad
way to pray but it’s not the only way we should pray either. When we pray to God, we should
also thank him for the things he’s done in our lives and is doing in the lives of others. When Paul
prayed to God with joy about the Philippians, he was thankful for the work they were doing to
spread the gospel and living for Christ. Have you ever prayed with joy for someone else?
Step Out: Journal Questions
1. Who wrote the book of Philippians? Where was he when he wrote this book? Why is that
important?
2. What is something that has happened in your life that brought joy or made you happy? Why did it
cause you to feel this way?
3. What one thing you can be thankful for today?
4. What can you do this week to make others joyful and encourage them?
5. Have you ever shared about Jesus with someone? What was that like?
6. Write down 1-3 things every day that they are thankful for.

3. Word Study
1. Decide on a word. (Our word for this lesson is Joy).
2. Look up the word in a dictionary, write down the definition, the synonyms and antonyms.
Definition:_________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Synonym:__________________________________________________________________________________________
Antonym:___________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Look up the word in a bible study app like E-sword or Blue Letter Bible .
-Click on the word and choose Interlinear/Concordance. (This gives you a breakdown of
each word in the verse, in the original language it was written.)
-Then tap on the specific word for the Hebrew (Old Testament language)/Greek (New
Testament language) definition and usage.
Hebrew Definition:________________________________________________________________________________
Greek Definition:__________________________________________________________________________________
4. Write down the scripture references listed with this word and look them up.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Read the context of the verses within the chapter and book. (This means try to find the
whole story that this verse takes place in. Usually you need to read the whole chapter and
sometimes scan the chapters before and after.)
6. Compare scripture with scripture for a full understanding of the word. How is the word
used in each of the passages you found in the Bible App? Is the word used differently in
different verses?
7. Compile your notes and write out the biblical definition of the word based on your study.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Pray for God to reveal the doctrine and the application. Ask him “What does this mean?”,
and “What does this mean to me?
Adapted from: https://www.themodernmary.com/quick-bible-word-study/