1. What are the things that you long for most? What are the things that cause you to make plans, in order to help ensure that they happen? What do you strategize for? What do you keep your sights on? When difficult decisions have to be made, which things stay at the top of your priority list?

Consider your list and the answers that surface for you to these questions. What did they tell you about yourself? How did you come by these priorities? Do they tell their own stories about your life and journey? Consider your answers,  and ask yourself what in your world and experience have cultivated those things as your priorities?

2. Have you ever been asked to do something, maybe something difficult, and responded with an instant, “absolutely yes!”? If not, can you imagine something that might be asked of you to which you would respond that way?

What do you think those asks were (or would be) resonating with inside yourself? What deep longings did/do they align with and speak to?

3. Tim said that this week’s story from Matthew 4 prompts us to consider our deepest longings, and to think about and reflect honestly on our own hearts and desires. Which of your desires inspire you to respond with an instant “yes” to the call of Christ? Which might be the source of resistance to Christ’s call in God’s kingdom?

Spend some time considering the longings you have identified through the course of your reflection. Whether they are more likely to lead you toward an instant acceptance of the principles of Christ or generate resistance, give yourself the gift of reflecting honestly on whatever patterns or trends you see.

As you consider, do you see things you might like to shift? If so, how might you go about cultivating or strengthening any desired shifts in your deepest longings?