Spiritual Concerns

 

 

Chapter 1 - Interest



Why

1.    State one reason you are committed to serving God.

 

2.    How can the same reason for your commitment to serving God be used as a commitment to having a positive wellness level?

 

3.    What does it mean to be 'spiritually fit?'

 

4.    What 'spiritual' exercises could you do that would improve your level of spiritual fitness?

 

5.    Include your spiritual walk with your physical walk.  Pray to God while you are walking.  Pick a specific topic for the day and center your thoughts on it.  Have discussions about the topic with your exercise partner.

 

Priorities

1.    What are your priorities for your spiritual life?

        a.

        b.

        c.

 

2.    Can others tell what your spiritual priorities are?  If not, why not?

 

3.    Which scriptures help you set your spiritual priorities?  Write them out and place them where you can view them often.

 

Ready

1.    How has God demonstrated His readiness to walk with all of mankind?

 

2.    Has He demonstrated His readiness to walk with you personally?  How?

 

3.    God asks us to walk with Him every day.  List the excuses you have used in the past that said no to God's requests.

 

4.    How can these excuses be eliminated?

 

Planning

1.    Did God have a plan in mind of how to save mankind, before Adam and Eve?

 

2.    What was it?

 

3.    Has God's plan changed?  If so, how?

 

4.    Where do you fit into God's plan?

 

5.    Read about Noah in Genesis 6 and 7.  What planning did he do?

 

6.    Keeping a prayer or spiritual journal is an excellent way to see how far you have come.

 

Chapter 2 - Belief



Commitment

1.    How has God committed Himself to you?

 

2.    How have you committed yourself to God?

 

3.    Why is a vow so important to God?

 

Steadfast

1.    How steadfast have you been in serving God?  Why?

 

2.    Which words would you use to describe your service to God?

 

3.    What have been some of your Īcostsā as a result of serving God?

 

Excuses

1.    What excuses prevent you from serving God to the best of your ability?

 

2.    Who puts these excuses into your mind?

 

3.    List the excuses that God will accept when He sends Jesus for us?  Please use all of the space between these brackets [].

 

Godās View

1.    From a factual point of view, how do you know God cares about you?

 

2.    Intellectually we know God cares about us.  How difficult is it to accept this emotionally?  Why?

 

3.    How do you know that He cares about your physical health?

 

4.    How does the Holy Spirit help the children of God to have positive physical and spiritual health?

 

Chapter 3 - Paperwork



Goals

1.    What short range and long-range goals do you have for becoming a better servant for God?

        a.    short-range

        b.    long-range

 

2.    What goals does God have for you in this life?

 

3.    Why does God have goals for us to achieve in this life?

 

4.    How are your goals in this life different from those God has for you?

 

Prescription

1.    What is the prescription for eternal life with God?

 

2.    Why is God's prescription for salvation so difficult for some to accept?

 

3.    How close is your current spiritual prescription to what God would have it be?

 

Contract

1.    What would your contract with God look like?

 

2.    Consider creating a contract with God and signing it.

 

3.    Why does God consider an oath or a vow so important to keep?

 

4.    How can baptism be considered a contract with God?

 

Motivation

1.    What motivates God to save man?

 

2.    How does God help us to serve Him?

 

3.    What motivates you to serve God?

 

4.    How is your motivation to serve God hindered?

 

5.    What do you think motivates Satan to pursue his goals?

 

Chapter 4 - Basics



When-Where-How

1.    Name a spiritual walk, which you have never experienced, such as sharing your conversion to Christ with a group.

 

2.    When do you feel the most spiritual?

 

3.    Where do you feel the most spiritual? (Special location or place.)

 

4.    How has your spirituality grown since you became a Christian?  Why?

 

EBZ

1.    How would you define your Spiritual Benefit Zone (SBZ)?

 

2.    Which of your talents are the easiest for you to use?

 

3.    Which of your talents are the most difficult for you to use?

 

4.    How could you expand your (SBZ)?

 

Warming-up

1.    How do you prepare or warm up for your weekly spiritual exercises?  Why?

 

2.    Does a mature Christian need the same type of spiritual preparation each day as a new Christian does?  Why?

 

3.    How can we help people who do not know Jesus to warm up to the idea of accepting Him?

 

Cooling-down

1.    When confronted with a difficult situation, how cool are you emotionally on a scale of one to ten with ten being the coolest?  Why?

 

2.    If you aren't satisfied with your degree of coolness, how could you improve?

 

3.    How does God help you to be cool under stress?

 

Chapter 5 - Frequency



Ten Minutes

1.    What do you plan to do to make sure you have a long duration of service to God?

 

2.    What are you currently doing to make sure you serve God for as long as you live?

 

3.    Is your spiritual fitness level at the high end of your spiritual range or at the low end?  Why?

 

Once A Week

1.    How many times do you attend Church each week?  How do you relate this number to your spiritual walk?

 

2.    How does meeting with other Christians help you in your spiritual walk?

 

3.    How often do you minister to other Christians?  Are you satisfied with this number?  Why?

 

4.    What are your two most important involvements in ministering to others?  Why?

 

Flexibility

1.    In which areas of your spiritual life are you most likely to be flexible?  Why?

 

2.    Which areas of your spiritual life are you most likely to be inflexible?  Why?

 

3.    How often do you pray, asking God to give you guidance in the decisions you make?  If it could be more, why isn't it?

 

4.    Is the Church too flexible or too ridged?  In which ways?

 

Relaxation

1.    Do you think God is relaxed?  Why?

 

2.    When are you the most relaxed spiritually?  Why?

 

3.    When are you the most stressed spiritually?  Why?

 

4.    Why should a Christian be more relaxed than a non-Christian?

 

5.    What does Satan do to relax?

 

Chapter 6 - Intensity



Levels

1.    How would you rate your spiritual intensity?

 

2.    What causes your spiritual intensity to increase or decrease?

 

3.    Which Bible character had the greatest spiritual intensity, in your opinion?  Why?

 

4.    Which Bible character do you feel you are most like spiritually?

 

5.    Which Bible character do you feel you are least similar to spiritually?

 

Slow

1.    How consistent is your current pace or stride in your service to God?

 

2.    Which areas of your spiritual growth have been slowest in maturing?  Why?

 

3.    How can you encourage a brother or sister in Christ to move from a slow pace to medium pace in service to God?

 

Medium

1.    Which events or activities in your life have caused you to change to a faster pace in your spiritual walk?

 

2.    Which events or activities have caused a slower pace in your spiritual walk?

 

3.    How could you encourage a brother or sister in Christ to move from a medium level of service to God to a faster level of service?

 

Fast

1.    Is your level of service to God more mature today than it was one year ago?  Why or how?

 

2.    Is your spiritual maturity more or less mature than it was five years ago?  Why or how?

 

3.    Which of these twelve criteria would you consider to be the most important?  Why?

 

4.    How could you encourage a brother or sister in Christ to move from medium to fast service to God?

 

Chapter 7 - Dangers



Risks

1.    What risks did God take when He decided to save mankind?

 

2.    Did the risks keep God from following through on His commitment?  Why?

 

3.    How does God help us overcome the risks of living for Him?

 

4.    How does Satan convince man to take spiritual risks?

 

Injuries

1.    What are some of the potential injuries for your spiritual walk?

 

2.    How can you avoid situations that might cause you spiritual injury?

 

3.    How would you treat these harmful situations should they occur?

 

Safety

1.    How does God help you to be spiritually safe?

 

2.    How can you help provide spiritual safety for others?

 

3.    What interferes with your spiritual safety?  Why?

 

Failure

1.    Which Bible characters failed in some way and yet God rewarded them?

 

2.    What did God do to ensure He would not fail us?

 

3.    What can we do to make sure we do not fail God?

 

4.    Why will Satan ultimately fail in his goals?

 

5.    Why are most Christians reluctant to admit their failures to their fellow Christians?

 

Chapter 8 - Physically



Energy

1.    What in your life limits your service to God?  How?

 

2.    What changes could you make in your life that would provide you with more time and energy for the Lord?

 

3.    When do you feel the most energized spiritually?

 

Heart

1.    If the strongest spiritual heart is a ten and the weakest is a zero, what rating do you feel yours would be?  Why?

 

2.    If you are not satisfied with the above rating, what could you do to change it?  If you are satisfied, how can you make sure you maintain your rating?

 

3.    Which female in the Bible do you think had the greatest serving heart?  Why?

 

4.    Which male in the Bible do you think had the greatest serving heart?  Why?

 

Strength

1.    What are your strengths in service to God?

 

2.    What has contributed to the development of these strengths?

 

3.    Which areas of your service to God need to be strengthened?

 

4.    How can you improve strength in the weaker areas of your service?

 

5.    How strong is God?  How does the fact that we are made in God's image relate to our potential strength?

 

Fitness

1.    What benefits can you see from your spiritual walk with God?

 

2.    How have the benefits you listed above improved your spiritual fitness?

 

3.    Why is it impossible to achieve perfect spiritual fitness in this life?

 

Chapter 9 - Equilibrium



'Use It Or Lose It'

1.    List spiritual qualities that people have and must be used or they will be lost?

 

2.    Do you have any spiritual qualities that are weaker now than they used to be?  If so, why are they?

 

3.    How do you make sure your level of spiritual fitness remains acceptable to God?

 

4.    Which spiritual qualities do you have that are stronger today than they used to be?  What has caused this increase in strength?

 

Balance

1.    Is God pleased with where you are for each of the five domains?  If not, why?

 

2.    Would you want others to follow in your steps for all five domains?  If not, why not?

 

3.    Are there areas of spiritual moderation in your life?  If so, what are they?

 

Weight Loss

1.    Are there areas of spiritual moderation in your life?  If so, what are they?

 

2.    How can God help us lose the weight of sin?

 

3.    How can you help others to lose their weights of sin?

 

4.    How does your weight of sin go up and down over time?  Why
 

'No Pain - No Gain'

1.    What does God say about us experiencing pain and/or discomfort in service to Him?

 

2.    Will we experience pain?  If so, what kind?  If not, why not?

 

3.    How does God use pain to produce gain?

 

4.    What does spiritual pain mean to you?

 

Chapter 10 - Principles



Aerobic vs. Anaerobic

1.    God desires that we use our full potential of effort as we serve Him.  What percent of your maximum effort for God would you say you are currently using?

 

2.    Is your level of service to God acceptable?  If not, why not?

 

3.    If your current level of service is not acceptable, what could you realistically do about it?

 

Specificity

1.    Give a statement God made in the Bible that indicates how specific His instructions are?  Why was this particular statement so specific?

 

2.    How should we react to specific statements from God to make sure we do what He has asked or required?

 

3.    How do Christians sometimes go overboard on specifics for God?

 

4.    Satan desires that we use his sinful talents and provides them for us.  What happens to a sinful skill when we continue to use it?

 

Progression

1.    If God has a progression plan for saving the world, what is it?

 

2.    Why do you think God did not just start out by having everyone at the top of the progression?

 

3.    Outline your spiritual progression since becoming a child of God.

 

Overload

1.    How does God use progressive overload to improve us spiritually?

 

2.    What are ways God challenges us to raise our levels of spiritual maturity?

 

3.    List common ways that Christians can overload themselves at church, work, and home.

 

4.    Do you have spiritual overloads?  If so, what are they?

 

5.    In which ways spiritually, could you handle a greater workload?

 

Chapter 11 - Socially



Relationships

1.    Which spiritual partners in your life encourage your walk with God?  How?

 

2.    How has your relationship with God improved in the last five years?  Why?

 

3.    Where do you want your relationship with God to be five years from now?  Why?

 

4.    What can you do to make sure your relationship with God improves in the future?

 

5.    Name two Biblical stories that indicate a positive relationship between individuals, and two that indicate a negative result.

 

Physical Beauty

1.    What does God think about our physical appearance?

 

2.    How does our appearance relate to the fact that we are made in God's image?

 

3.    Most people feel the process of aging is a negative aspect of physical appearance?  How would Jesus respond to this?

 

4.    How can our physical appearance become a god to us?

 

5.    How does Satan encourage people to concentrate on physical beauty?

 

Competition

1.    Which types of earthly gods do people have that compete with God?

 

2.    How does Satan compete with us?  With God?

 

3.    Is there a spiritual type of competitiveness that is acceptable to God?  If so, what is it?

 

4.    Is there some lack of competitiveness in your spiritual life that displeases God?  If so, what?

 

Happiness

1.    Do you think God is happy right now with the way things are going on His earth?  Why?

 

2.    Do you think God is having fun?  If He isn't, do you think He should just give up and quit?

 

3.    When will God complete His happiness?

 

4.    What makes Satan happy?

 

5.    In your opinion, which two Bible characters displayed the most unhappiness?  Why do you feel they were unhappy?

 

Chapter 12 - Mind


Mental Health

1.    If your mental health is not as positive as you would like for it to be, what has caused it to become less positive?

 

2.    How can God help you improve your mental health?

 

3.    Are you resistant to God's help to improve your mental health?  If so, why?

 

4.    How do fellow-Christians help and hurt our mental health?

 

5.    How do fellow-Christians help and hurt our mental health?

 

Self-Concept

1.    Are there spiritual goals you would like to achieve, but your belief in yourself is holding you back?  List them.

 

2.    Why does God want us to think highly of ourselves?

 

3.    Name two people in the Biblical who had a high spiritual self-concept and two who had a low spiritual self-concept.  What do you think contributed to each?

 

Stress

1.    Does God experience stress?  If so, what is it?

 

2.    How do you think God deals with any stress He might have?

 

3.    Which stresses do you have that are related to your walk with God?

 

4.    How do you deal with each of your spiritual stresses?

 

Behavior

1.    How do you plan to continue your growth in spiritual fitness?

 

2.    How will God help you to succeed in this spiritual growth?

 

3.    If you are a Christian, which behaviors have changed since you accepted God's plan of salvation?

 

4.    Outline a plan for your continued spiritual behavior improvements.

 

Chapter 13 - Results


Longevity

1.    What are you doing to add longevity to your life?

 

2.    List things in your life that could be decreasing your longevity of life.

 

3.    How can you influence the things on your lists for the better?

 

4.    List ways your longevity can continue on earth after you die?

 

Masculinity

1.    How does God expect men to lead?  Why?

 

2.    What hinders men from leading their families spiritually?

 

3.    How can men in general lead women to Jesus?

 

4.    How can men lead other men to Jesus?

 

Femininity

1.    How do you see the female's role in the family today?  In the Church?

 

2.    Why, or how, are females special to God?

 

3.    What hinders women from leading their families spiritually?

 

4.    How can women in general lead men to Jesus?

 

5.    How can women in general lead women to Jesus?

 

Serving

1.    List spiritual gifts God has given to you.

 

2.    What is the meaning of each gift we have received from God?

 

3.    How are you using your gifts from God?

 

4.    Are you satisfied with how you use Godās gifts in your life?  If not, what could you do about it?

 

5.   Reread I Corinthians 6:19-20.  Since completing your walk through this book, do you have new thoughts about what God wants for you?