Think about someone who has betrayed you and answer these questions.

• Was your response to run from others or move toward a good friend?
• Were you questioning God or submitting to his loving hand?
• Was your response to pray or to get revenge?
• Did you act wisely or become passive?

Discussion Questions

• Where might your anger at sin stop short of action, allowing silence to become complicity?
• Tamar is the only one who names the evil in this passage. What does that reveal about courage?
• What does the cross reveal about how seriously God takes injustice, and how is Jesus fundamentally different from every man in this chapter?

Discussion Questions

• Where are you most tempted to live as if acceptance comes from performance, even spiritually?
• Which “put on” virtue feels most difficult for you right now (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love)? What is one concrete way you can “put it on” this week, even if you don’t feel it yet?
• Paul repeats “thankful/thanks” three times in Colossians 3:15–17. What is the difference between gratitude as a feeling and gratitude as a practice in your daily life?

Discussion Questions

• What are the primary influences that are actively forming the thoughts, attitudes and desires of your heart right now? Are these forming you into the likeness of Christ?
• What unhelpful habit or practice of your “old self” is God calling you to put off today as an act of faith?
• If none of your habits and loves change, who are you likely to become five years from now? Is that the person you believe God is calling you to be?

Discussion Questions

• Where are you waiting on the Lord’s comfort and deliverance in your life? Why is waiting so difficult?
• What does it look like to live faithfully during a time of waiting?
• Which promises of God do you most cling to and how do they give you hope to press on?
• Is there an area of your life that you have not fully surrendered to the Lord?