Where does your hope come from? How do you endure trials? What role does prayer play in your life?

Hope helps us to keep going in anticipation of what God has in store for our future and is cause for joy.

The trials we encounter in life require patient endurance, stamina, and perseverance as we move forward.

How much is required for you to have your needs met? How much is enough? What are your physical and spiritual needs?

We all have basic physical and spiritual needs which need to be met for our survival and wellbeing.

In the account of the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s gospel, Jesus addressed the woman’s spiritual need by offering her living water.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14, ESV).

Have you ever been torn between two places? Maybe you have heard the expression, “Stuck between a rock and a hard place”?

Oftentimes, we can be emotionally, physically, and even spiritually, tied to a specific place. We can see our decision to be somewhere as either the one place or the other. Particular places have particular meaning and significance in our lives, and it can be difficult to see beyond them.

In the account of the Samaritan woman at the well, in the gospel of John chapter four, this issue of place comes up in conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman who came to draw water from the well.

What are you looking to for help? Where do you look for salvation? What are you seeing?

We see what we are looking to. However, not everything we look to and see can bring us the salvation we seek.

The Apostle John quotes Jesus in his gospel account as saying, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40, ESV).

What happens when the true worship of God becomes idolatry? Is it possible that the God given signs which point to the worship of God can become an idol?

In the the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the twenty-five year old king of Judah, the Israelite people were worshipping idols. The same bronze serpent God had instructed Moses to build to save the rebellious Israelites, had become a point of idolatry as their history unfolded in the days of the kings.

The book of Second Kings tells us, King Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan)” (2 Kings 18:1-4, ESV).

What wildernesses and death does our sinful rebellion bring us? How are we rescued and saved from our sin?

Our sin and rebellion against God can lead us through dry and perilous wildernesses in our lives. The judgement bite of the enemy, the serpent, can bring us death because of our sin and rebellion.

When the Israelites complained, rebelled, and sinned against God, having just been freed from slavery in Egypt, God sent fiery serpents to strike them with death and judgement in their wilderness wandering.

The book of Numbers tells us, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:8-9, ESV).

When Jesus takes our sin, what happens to our sin? Where does our sin go if it is no longer ours to carry?

When Jesus removes our sin, he takes our sin upon himself. Jesus carries our sin so that we do not have to carry it.

Paul wrote the church in Corinth, saying, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV).

Are you being overcome, or are you overcoming?

We can be overcome by the evil in this world, or we can overcome evil with God’s goodness.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Rome, encouraging them, saying, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, ESV).

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'” (Matthew 4:1-3, ESV).

Prayer and fasting go together hand in hand. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus assumed both prayer and fasting, saying "when you pray" and "when you fast" (Matthew 6:5 and 6:16). Notice Jesus did not say "if". The assumption is followers of God will be active in the disciplines of prayer and fasting.

After his baptism, Jesus began his earthly ministry with prayer and fasting when "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1-2 and Luke 4:1-2).

Where does temptation come from? How are we tempted? Why are we tempted? What do we do about temptation? Where is God when we are tempted?

Ever since the fall of humanity, in Genesis chapter three, humanity has been tempted by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did so by sowing seeds of doubt, “Did God really say?” … “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (Genesis 3:1-7, ESV). Eve was tempted by what she saw, she desired to satisfy her hunger, and she longed to be wise and to be like God.

In his book Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters, Timothy Keller makes the point that we are tempted to make gods of money, sex, and power. Keller says, “the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy [the human] heart” (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods). Our temptations will always fall short of satisfying the void in us, which only God can fill.

Where do you find peace in times of anxiety? How do you endure and overcome anxiousness?

There are many aspects of life that provoke anxiety in the best of us, and in the best of times, in this broken world.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Philippi, saying, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬-‭7‬, ESV‬‬)

What role does truth play in your life? How do you determine truth? What is the outcome of truth in your life?

Truth is of essential importance in rightly navigating life. We come to know truth as we come to know God through his word. When we behold God’s truth and live it out, we are set free by God’s truth.

In John’s Gospel account, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, ESV).

What does repentance bring about in the follower of Jesus? What are the benefits and outcomes of turning from our sin and back towards God?

Repentance brings about restoration and reconciliation with God and others. When we turn from our sin towards God, he meets us with forgiveness and restoration.

After his sinful affair with Bathsheba, King David wrote Psalm 51, pleading with God, saying, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:11-12, ESV).

What happens when we look fully at the glory of God?

God’s glory transforms us into his likeness. We are more like Jesus when we look directly at Jesus with unveiled faces.

God’s Spirit reveals God’s glory to us, frees us, and transforms us into his image as we behold God’s glory. This transformation comes from God himself, we do not earn it, and we do not deserve it on our own merit.

In his second letter to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, ESV).

Are you thirsty? What are you thirsty for?

Our desires transcend our natural needs. We can thirst for God and his kingdom just as we thirst for cool water on a hot summer day.

The Psalmist writes, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1, ESV).

How do we walk the path of life? Do we walk according to our bodily desires, or do we walk according to the Spirit of God?

The Apostle Paul encouraged the church in Galatia saying, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, ESV).

If we are walking one way, we cannot simultaneously walk in a different direction. In the same manner, we cannot walk in the ways of our sinful and fleshly desires and walk by the Spirit of God.

How can we believe what we did not see for ourselves? How do we bear witness to what others do not see?

If we do not witness truth for ourselves, we can rely on firsthand witnesses who we trust to be reliable.

The Apostle Peter wrote of his encounter on the mount of Transfiguration, saying, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 1:16-18, ESV).

Have you ever experienced a complete change? Have you ever witnessed a complete change or transformation?

The presence and glory of God transforms everyone who encounters God and his glory-filled presence.

Jesus took his closest disciples up to a high mountain and was transfigured by God’s glory before their very eyes.

Mathew tells us in his gospel account, “After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:1-2, ESV).

What do you do when you know you are not where you need to be in your relationship with God? How about in your relationship with your neighbor, or with yourself?

You can keep going in the direction you are headed, or you can change course.

The saying goes, “The definition of insanity is doing what you have always done and expecting different results.” It is the same in our relationship with God.

God spoke to the sinful people of Judah through the prophet Joel, saying, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” (Joel 2:12-14, ESV).

To whom do you dedicate your work? What purpose does your work serve?

Our work matters. Our work has purpose and meaning in the world and for eternity. God has given us the gift of work for his glory and kingdom advancement.

The wisdom of the Proverbs instructs us to “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3, ESV).