Voices Week 1 - Jason VanRuler

Questions

• Pray and invite God into this time with Him.

• Is there a conversation you’ve had lately that you wish you could take back? If not lately, has there ever been a conversation in your life you wish you could take back?

• What do you think makes someone a great communicator?

• Look up the definitions of being present vs having presence. Talk about the similarities & differences in those two things.

• Talk about a time where you were physically in a conversation but mentally you were not focused on the conversation. What distracted you in that conversation?

• Read Luke 10:38-42. 

• Imagine Jesus came to your home and you were Martha instead of Mary. Years later, someone asks “what was it like having Jesus in your home?” and you aren’t able to answer because you were too distracted. How would that make you feel?

• Read Genesis 3:12.

• Defensiveness is something humans have been doing since the very beginning, as we see with Adam in this story. Talk about a time you were quick to get defensive and how the situation could have been different if you hadn’t got defensive. 

• Read Job 2:13.

• Talk about a time someone was dismissive towards you when you were talking about a struggle you were having. How did that make you feel? 

• One challenge as you continue, ask these three questions: 

  • Where am I looking? 

  • What am I protecting? 

  • Whose pain am I walking past?

Spiritual Practice
Prayer: Spend time in prayer with God. Ask Him to help you be present with others. Ask Him to help you be less distracted, slow to defensiveness, and not dismissive. Thank Him for giving us the perfect shoulder to lean on in Jesus.