GROUP STUDY QUESTIONS Fully Alive amazonaws com
GROUP STUDY QUESTIONS Fully Alive Colossians 3:1-17 When you think about your own personal faith journey are you more likely to describe it as "fully alive" or "boring and burdensome?” What do you think it looks like to have a life of faith that is "fully alive?” Read through the passage in Colossians as a group: • Col 3:1-17 (for the purpose of wording Jon used the New Living Translation. If you have access to that translation please use it when reading through as a group) Jon pointed out four steps to living a live of faith fully alive from the Colossians passage; do you remember what they were? Read verses 1-4: • Jon said the first step to living fully alive in your faith is to understand who you are. What do you think that means and how do you think it makes a difference in your spiritual life? • Jon used an analogy called "The Swiss Life." What do you remember from that analogy, can you explain it, and how do you see that analogy lining up with your personal spiritual lives? Read verses 5-11: • Jon said the second step to living fully alive in your faith is to recognize the old you. What do you think that means and how do you think recognizing the "old you" makes a difference in how you live out your faith today? Read verses 12-14: • Jon said the third step of living fully alive in your faith is to adapt to the new you. What do you think that means? How often have you really thought of yourself as being a "new you" after coming to faith in Christ? • Jon said you cannot live fully alive and hold on to offense. Do you agree and how have you seen this specific example play out in your own life? • Read through the list of characteristics of the "new you" in verses 12-15 and as a group discuss how often you live those out and which ones are the most difficult for you. • Read through the list of characteristics again and as a group answer this question: "Where does it say argue, debate, be divisive in order to prove you are right?" • Is it possible that Christians in our day and age are more known for the statement above than they are for the list of characteristics found in Colossians? • How would the world see us differently if we lived the Colossians life of being fully alive?
Read verses 15-17: • Jon said the fourth and final step of living fully alive in your faith is to live with peace and praise. • There is an old saying that says to live with unforgiveness (or in this case offense) is like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. Is it really possible to have peace and praise in our lives while holding on to offense from the past? • The last characteristic from verses 12-14 is to always be thankful. It can be easy to get trapped in a place of self-pity, but it is in thankfulness that we are able to live fully alive in praise and peace. • Discuss as a group how often your life is filled with genuine peace and praise? • As a group throw out some things that you are thankful for. It doesn't matter how big or small they might be. The more we practice thankfulness the better we become as living with peace and praise. There will always be something more out there that we think we need, but when we live in thankfulness we begin to see how good a life “fully alive” in Christ can be. With any time remaining continue to list things you are thankful for and spend some time in prayer. However, focus your prayers on thanksgiving rather than requests. God knows the desires of our hearts, but sometimes it is for our good that we vocalize the things we are thankful for.
Read verses 15-17: • Jon said the fourth and final step of living fully alive in your faith is to live with peace and praise. • There is an old saying that says to live with unforgiveness (or in this case offense) is like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. Is it really possible to have peace and praise in our lives while holding on to offense from the past? • The last characteristic from verses 12-14 is to always be thankful. It can be easy to get trapped in a place of self-pity, but it is in thankfulness that we are able to live fully alive in praise and peace. • Discuss as a group how often your life is filled with genuine peace and praise? • As a group throw out some things that you are thankful for. It doesn't matter how big or small they might be. The more we practice thankfulness the better we become as living with peace and praise. There will always be something more out there that we think we need, but when we live in thankfulness we begin to see how good a life “fully alive” in Christ can be. With any time remaining continue to list things you are thankful for and spend some time in prayer. However, focus your prayers on thanksgiving rather than requests. God knows the desires of our hearts, but sometimes it is for our good that we vocalize the things we are thankful for.
