(Or like 67 depending on how you count)

Knowing yourself isn’t always easy, especially when you are confidant that you are right (Psalm 139). And sometimes we just have a hard time getting a passage to connect with our hearts and minds. 

But the goal of discipleship is not just to make a passing approval of some sentences in order to feel better about ourselves. We’re to be shaped and forged into maturity — that is into being like Christ (Eph 4). 

Here are some questions to help reveal and shape our hearts and lives (Eph 4). As you use these in your small group you’ll find you really get to know one another on a deeper level. You'll be more able to support one another, pray for one another, and encourage one another in the faith. Use them in your devotion and you'll find another level of self-inspection that helps apply the word to personally.  

You can’t ask and answer each of these in every devotional or small group. But but asking these kinds of questions you’ll begin to grow in applying the Bible to your heart and that of others.  

First pray, remembering God knows your heart. Ask God to use His word to reveal and shape your heart and life into Christ's likeness. 

^{Jeremiah 17:9
9}  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  ¹⁰  “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

HEART

1. What does passage teach me to want? Do I want that? 
2. What does this passage lead me to love? Do I love that?
3. Who does this teach me to worship and adore? Who do I worship or adore?
4. Do feel angry in response to this passage? Why?  
5. Would obeying this passage make me sad to lose anything?
6. What is the best and worst case scenario in obeying this passage? Are there examples in the text?  
7. How do I feel about believing and obeying this passage? If I am resistant, why? 
8. When I think about this passage, is there anything I am afraid of? And what does this passage encourage me to trust in order overcome that fear?
9. What exactly am I being asked to think? Am I resistant in any way? 
10. What exactly am I being asked to do? Am I resistant in any way?  
11. What in this passage will make me truly happy? Do I believe it?
12. Do I trust that believing and obeying this passage is best for me and others? 
13. According to this passage, what is successful? Prosperity? Is that my idea of success? 
14. What emotions come up first when I hear this passage? 
15. Would I gladly boast about the truth and goodness of this passage? Why not?  
16. How would I feel about an unbeliever seeing this passage? What does that reveal about me or my understanding of the passage? How could I use this passage to speak of the glories of Christ to an unbeliever? 
17. What personal experiences have I had which confirms this truth of this passage? 
18. Am I able to discern ways this passage encourages me to continue in faithfulness? 
19. In what ways does this passage convicts me, leading me to repent from sin and grow in sanctification? 
20. In what way does this passage challenge me personally? 
21. How does this passage foster worship and adoration toward God in my heart and mind? 
22. Is a there particular phrase (truth or command) which particularly pricked your heart? Why so? 
23. What do I see is my personal responsibility in response to this passage? How do I honestly feel about it? What truth, hope, or promise in this passage can help me have strength and courage to do it?
24. Does this passage reveal in relational conflict between me and someone else? What does it reveal? What is my part in a way forward? 
25. How does my cultural upbringing or surroundings affect the way I am responding to this passage (whether positively or negatively)? What about the way I apply this passage?
26. What do I love most about this passage? 
27. What is hardest for me to love at first in this passage? What does that reveal about my heart? What in the passage can help change my heart?
28. How does this passage reveal I feel about the whole Bible? How does this passage shape my framework for reading the whole Bible?  
29. What would Satan want done to oppose God in this passage? Does that at all sound good to me? 

LIFE

1. How does this apply to interactions with others? In the church? Non-believers? 
2. How does this passage affect what I plan on my calendar this week? 
3. How would I apply this passage to being a faithful church member? 
4. What words would come out of my mouth by applying this passage? What questions in conversation with others? 
5. What is a scenario I may find myself in this week where this passage directly applies?
6. What have I been doing instead of obeying this passage (something I’ve done or not done)? 
7. How did Jesus exemplify the truths and commands of this passage in his life? 
8. What does this passage lead me to put on my calendar next week? 
9. What person in particular should I pray for?
10. Who should I pray for in the expectation I can apply this passage to my interaction with them this week? 
11. How does this relate to my home rhythms? 
12. Does this change how I think about any of my habits? 
13. What are three things I can praise God for in prayer based on this passage?
14. What are three things I can ask God for help with from this passage? 
15. Who is a helpful example in living out this passage that I can write and thank? 

For His Glory,

Nathan