Where do you direct your thoughts? Do you direct your thoughts to the things of the world or do you fix your mind on the kingdom of God? Where is your mind?

What we fix our minds upon is important. Our thoughts become our words, and our words become our actions. It matters where our minds are focused.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church, encouraging them with these words, saying, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2, ESV).

What gifts has God given you? Are you using God’s good gifts for God’s good purposes in the world?

God has given us all gifts and skills to be used to glorify him with our lives. We all have something to offer and to give.

In his first letter, the Apostle Peter wrote, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10, ESV).

Do you fear God? Are you careful to respect God’s good name? Does God know you? Are you remembered by God?

The wisdom of the Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10, KJV).

We know God and revere his name when we fear God. When we fear God, he sees us, he hears us, and he knows us as his own. God remembers us when we fear him and revere his holy name.

Are you at peace in your life? Is the peace you are experiencing perfect?

God desires his children to experience his perfect peace. We experience God’s perfect peace by keeping our minds on him and by trusting him.

God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah about his perfect peace, saying, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3, ESV).

Do you keep busy doing good deeds? Do you work hard in your labors? Do you ever grow weary in doing good?

God calls us to work steady and diligently. As followers of Jesus, we are called to serve well, to do good work, and to work doing good in the world. This faithful labor can be tiresome, we can grow weary, and we can even burn out.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Thessalonica, encouraging them with these words: “As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13, ESV).

Were you made for this world or for another world?

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world” (C.S. Lewis).

If we are unsettled by this life and the way things are in this world, we should look to the life to come. We are to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Thessalonica, saying, “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, ESV).

Is God the God of the dead or the God of the living?

God is the author of life and the giver of life everlasting. When we are in God, there is no death, because God is the God of the living.

In Luke’s gospel account Jesus assured the Sadducees of the resurrection, saying, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” (Luke 20:37-38, ESV).

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV).

Who are you? It is a complicated question. Equally complicated is the question, "Who were they?" when referring to the people of the Bible. If we are to understand the rich meaning of the scriptures, we must understand who the people of the Bible were. When we consider this question, what we are really asking about is culture.

The word culture is derived from the Latin cultura, meaning "to cultivate.” To understand culture, it requires an understanding of language and knowledge differences, and perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, which are formed through patterns of human activity and symbolic structures, which give these activities significance, meaning, and importance.

Would you trade your life for a better life? If someone could deliver you from all the darkness in life and give you light, would you receive that good gift?

God desires for us to transfer our lives for the life he has for us.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” (Colossians 1:13, ESV).

What are the differences between this life and the life to come? Are there facets of this life that will change and look differently in eternity? What does attaining resurrection life look like?

In answering a question about marriage in eternity, Jesus instructed the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, saying, “Those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” (Luke 20: 34-36, ESV).

Is God the God of the living or the dead? What does it mean that God is the God of the living? Are you going to live eternally?

God is a living God. And God is the God of the living. God created life and seeks to sustain life and to give life. Sin and death is the enemy of God. The mission of God is to destroy death, which is the work of the enemy, and to give resurrection life.

Jesus spoke about the resurrection of the dead to the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, saying, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” (Luke 20:37-38, ESV).

Do you have a best friend? What is your friendship like? Would you do anything for your friend? Would you keep your promises to your friend?

In the Bible there is a description of an intimate friendship between then soon to be King—David and King Saul’s son—Jonathan.

The first book of Samuel tells us, “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.” (1 Samuel 18:3-4, ESV).

What does God’s kingdom look like? How long will God’s kingdom endure?

God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. The kingdom of God lasts throughout all generations. God’s kingdom ushers in the faithfulness of God who fulfills the promises of his word and God’s faithful works in our lives and in the world.

The Psalmist writes, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.” (Psalm 145:13, ESV).

Who rules over your life? How do you make decisions? Who determines what is moral, or what is right or wrong?

In the Book of Judges in the era when Judges ruled over the nation of Israel, the author writes, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25, ESV).

When there is not a moral authority, people slip into the default of moral relativism and corruption. Everyone becomes their own moral authority. Moral ambiguity and corruption become the norm for the majority.

What do you do with your animosity towards your enemies? Do you look to avenge yourself or to show mercy? Do you love your enemies?

As followers of Jesus we are called to the high calling of loving our enemies.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Luke’s gospel account, Jesus taught, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27-28, ESV).

Are you trusting in God or trusting in yourself to be right with God? What is your standard for right standing with God? Is it God’s holiness or how you measure up to other people around you?

When we assess our lives, it is tempting to compare ourselves with others. And it is often the case that we compare ourselves with people around us instead of comparing ourselves to a holy God.

We seek to be a “good person” and to collect good deeds and behaviors to outweigh our bad deeds and behaviors in order to be right with God and others by our own merits. We trust in ourselves.

When you pray, are you praying to God or talking to yourself? Are you praying in order to trust and rely on your own righteousness, or are you praying because you trust and rely on the righteousness and mercy of God?

In Luke’s gospel account, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to address “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”

Jesus said, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.’” (Luke 18:9-11, NKJV).

When you pray, do you feel like you are being heard by God? Have you ever considered praying to God to ask him to hear your prayers?

God hears us when we pray. When we feel as if God is not listening to our prayers, we can ask God to hear us and to grant our requests as we pray.

The Psalmist, one of the Sons of Korah, wrote, “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!” (Psalm 84:8-9, ESV).

Do your prayers reflected self awareness and honesty with God? When was the last time you did a self assessment with God?

We should not shield ourselves from the true condition of our hearts. It is denial.

God desires for us to be honest with him when we come to him in prayer. We cannot receive a merciful treatment from God without an accurate and complete diagnosis of our condition.

The Prophet Jeremiah understood this truth when he prayed this prayer in the face of judgement and exile: “Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name's sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you.” (Jeremiah 14:7, ESV).

How do you give? Do you give reluctantly or easily? Do you give compulsively or thoughtfully? Do you give begrudgingly or cheerfully?

God desires for us to give from the heart. We are to give freely and cheerfully.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Corinth, saying, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV).