Are you able to be steadfast in living out your faith? Are you able to endure hardships, challenges, and difficulties as you live into God’s work?

Living out our faith can have its challenges. We can encounter hardships, challenges, and difficulties as we live into God’s work and will for our life.

The Apostle Paul encouraged the church in Corinth, saying, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV).

How does God reveal himself to us?

God is always speaking. God is constantly revealing himself. God speaks and reveals himself by his Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit searches the depths—beyond our seeing or hearing, and beyond our wildest imaginings.

The Apostle Paul instructed the Corinthian church saying, “‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10, ESV).

How do you know how to think? What kinds of things do you think about? Do you think critically? Do you think rightly?

Our minds are capable of much more than we realize. We use our minds more than we are aware of. And we are capable of using our minds more than we do.

As followers of Jesus who have been given the Spirit of God, we have the mind of Christ. Because we have the mind of Christ, we can think like Jesus.

The Apostle Paul instructed the church in Corinth with this wisdom, writing, “‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16, ESV).

How do you need help? Who can help you with what you need?

It is easy to be fearful when we need help. We can feel insecure and alone in the face of our weaknesses and need.

God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah saying, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, ESV).

How does God use the foolish to shame the wise? How does God use the weak to shame the strong? Does the wisdom of God look like foolishness in this world?

God chooses unlikely candidates to serve him and to proclaim his kingdom in this world. What may look foolish from the outside, can actually be God’s wisdom.

The Apostle Paul asked the Corinthian church to consider their calling, saying, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” (1 Corinthians 1:26, ESV).

What does true power look like? What does true wisdom look like? How does God display and exercise true power and wisdom?

Most of us have an impression about what true power and wisdom looks like.

According to God’s word, Jesus’ crucifixion is the display of God’s power and wisdom. The world may see the cross of Jesus as weakness and foolishness; however, for God it is the ultimate expression of his power and wisdom for salvation for all people.

In his first letter to the Corinthian Church, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24, ESV).

What does wisdom look like? Where does wisdom come from? Do you have wisdom?

The Apostle Paul instructed the Church in Corinth, saying, “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, ESV).

Wisdom looks like Jesus, who is wisdom personified. Jesus embodies true wisdom. Wisdom is a person, his name is Jesus.

How do you know how to have peace with God? Do you have peace with God? What does peace with God look like?

When we know we are in a state of rightness, we are at peace with God. We have this state of right being through faith in Jesus. When we exercise our faith in God, we are justified and at peace through him.

The Apostle Paul wrote about this peace with God in his letter to the church in Rome, saying, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1, ESV).

Where does life come from? To whom does life belong?

God is the author of life. All life comes from God and God sustains all life. Life is God’s idea. It is God who gives life and instructs us how to live.

The Apostle John begins his gospel account with Jesus and his creation of all things—the origin of life. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5, ESV).

Are you aware of what you are submitting to in your life? What are the things that you are resisting?

We are faced with constant choices of submission and resistance in life.

As followers of Jesus we are called to submit to him in all things. We are also called to resist the enemy, the devil, who seeks to kill, to steal, and to destroy life (John 10:10).

James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7, ESV).

When was the last time you brought a friend to Jesus? What did bringing a friend to Jesus look like in the first century context? What does bringing a friend to Jesus look like in our current cultural context?

Bringing your friends to Jesus can be difficult. It was also challenging for four friends to bring their friend, who was a paralytic, to Jesus in Luke 5:17-26.

Luke’s gospel account tells us, "And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.” (Luke 5:18, ESV).

These four friends had to be persistent to receive the help they were looking for from Jesus. They had to address the complex issue of navigating the crowd, and when they could not push through, they had to design and implement another plan.

How was God present with us when he created us?

God intricately fashioned us in the intimacy of his presence.

God carefully constructed us with precise detail while keeping a steady eye on us.

The Psalmist writes, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:15-16, ESV).

Who gives life and shapes life? Who is the author of life who forms the world and everything and everyone in it?

God is the author of life. God gives life and God shapes life for his glory and purposes.

The musician and King, David the Psalmist, wrote, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14, ESV).

Are our lives pointing to ourselves, or to something or someone better? Do we put ourselves first, or do we prioritize what or who is more important? Do we love others enough to help them see what is best?

In the Gospel of John, the Apostle John tells of John the Baptist’s witness to who Jesus is, saying, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’” (John 1:29-30, ESV).

John recognized that Jesus was before him. John recognized Jesus as the Messiah of God. He recognized Jesus as the Christ—The Anointed One. John recognized Jesus as the perfect—sinless—Lamb of God, who takes away the world’s sin, shields the world from death, and who gives life to the world.

What do you do when you cannot do life on your own? What happens when you are unable to be faithful on your own?

When we are unable, God is able. When we are unfaithful, God is faithful.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Corinth encouraging them, saying, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV).

God is faithful. God calls us into the fellowship of Jesus.

"The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus." —John 1:35-37

"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." —Luke 6:40

Who are you following? Who are you leading? If the people you are leading follow you, will they get to Jesus?

We are called to follow Jesus and we are called to lead others to Jesus.

When we follow Jesus closely ourselves, those we lead will come to him as well, because they will go where we are leading, and they will see Jesus to whom our lives are pointing.

In his gospel account, the Apostle John tells us, “The next day again John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.” (John 1:35-37, ESV).

If you could bring someone anywhere, where would you bring them, or who would you bring them to?

When the Apostle Andrew began to follow Jesus, after hearing John’s testimony of Jesus, he found his brother Simon Peter and brought him to Jesus the Messiah.

John’s Gospel account tells us, “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas’ (which means Peter).” (John 1:40-42, ESV).

If you could fill the earth with one thing, what would it be?

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.

The Prophet Habakkuk spoke of a glory filled earth when he wrote, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14, ESV).

And how often do waters cover the sea? The waters cover over the sea one hundred percent of the time.

What motivates you to follow God, or to follow someone else? What are you seeking when you follow someone?

We will never find what we are looking for unless we follow and “come and see.” We cannot stay where we are and go with God where he is leading. It is only in following Jesus that we see what we are looking for.

The Apostle John records Jesus’ calling of his disciples, telling us, “Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What are you seeking?’ And they said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’” (John 1:38-39, ESV).