GCF Hays

Life Group Questions 

1. Biblical patience is described as both long-suffering (enduring hardship without giving up) and forbearance (forgiving and bearing with others). Which of these two areas is more difficult for you personally, and why?

2. Read Psalm 103:8-10. God is compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger, even when we fall short. How has God's patience with you changed the way you view Him? How should His patience influence the way you treat others?

3. Read James 1:2–4. Trials test our faith and produce patience. Can you share a time when a difficult season helped you grow spiritually? What might God be developing in you through a trial you're facing today?

4. Our everyday reactions can reveal whether we're relying on the Holy Spirit or ourselves. What situations tend to make you impatient, irritable, or quick to react? What could it look like to pause, seek the Holy Spirit's help, and respond differently in those moments?

5. Paul calls us to be patient with everyone, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and refuse to repay wrong for wrong. What is one specific relationship or situation in which you need to practice greater patience this week? What practical step will you take to respond with God's heart rather than your first reaction?

Life Group Questions 

1. Before Sunday, how would you have described a life at peace? Has your answer changed? If so, how?

2. The sermon suggested we can live in peace (e.g., worry-free) amid Jesus-promised never-ending trouble (John 16:33). Is this just foolishness? How can this be?

3. Think about your heaviest troubles right now (e.g., family, marriage, parenting, money, work, church). You don't need to name them. What does the weight of these troubles do to you? (e.g., sleeplessness, self-isolate, snap at others, escape, doomscroll, deny, etc.)

4. Paul said, "Don't worry about anything; INSTEAD, pray about everything" (Philippians 4:6, NLT). What's your honest first reaction: too simple, too hard, or something else? Can you do this?

5. If the Spirit is already in you, then why are there parts of your life without peace?

Life Group Questions 

1. What has had the greatest influence on your joy lately: God’s presence and promises, or what is happening around you? What does your answer reveal about where you’ve been placing your trust?

2. Pastor Rob said, “Joy doesn’t mean I don’t feel pain. Joy means my pain doesn’t get the final word.” What pain, disappointment, or unanswered prayer has been speaking the loudest in your life lately? What would it look like for God’s truth to have the final word instead?

3. When you listen honestly to the way you’ve been talking lately, what do your words reveal about the condition of your heart? Where have discouragement, frustration, or hopelessness started showing up in your language?

4. Where has comparison caused you to overlook or become dissatisfied with something you once thanked God for? What do you think God wants to restore in your perspective?

5. If the situation you most want God to change stayed exactly the same for a while, could you still find joy in Him? What would you need to surrender, believe, or refocus on for that to become true in your life?

Life Group Questions:

1. In Genesis, God’s first command to mankind was to “be fruitful and multiply.” The Hebrew words used help us see “fruitful” as a quality word and “multiply” as a quantity word. Why do you think God would address the quality of what we produce before the quantity?

2. Pastor Ryan referenced a quote from John Murray: “Whatever else we may have, if we don’t have character, we have nothing. It is character that determines destiny.” Are you more focused on what you can accomplish for God or on who you are becoming in God? Why?

3. When you honestly look at the way you treat the people in our church family, what evidence do you see that you genuinely love them? What evidence might reveal areas where you need to grow?

4. 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, love each other deeply.” What keeps you from developing deep relationships with other believers?

5. In Sunday’s message, we were challenged to practice love so consistently that our hearts become “trained in love” and we become “experts” in it. If someone observed your life for the next 30 days, what would they need to see from you specifically to know that you are actually growing in love?

Life Group Questions 

1. What stood out to you most from the message, and why did it speak to you personally?

2. When an obstacle appears in your life, what is your usual first response: fear, frustration, avoidance, faith, or something else?

3. Can you share about a past obstacle that God eventually used as an opportunity for growth, change, or ministry?

4. What current obstacle might God be inviting you to see differently, not as something stopping you, but as an opportunity to trust Him?

5. What practical step of faith can you take this week instead of allowing that obstacle to keep you stuck?

Life Group Questions 

1. Whose eyes matter most in your everyday decisions? (Think about a recent decision involving your family, work, finances, relationships, time, or personal choices. Were you primarily concerned with what was right in God’s sight, or with what was easiest, most comfortable, most accepted, or most beneficial to you? Why?)

2. Where might you be quietly substituting your way for God’s way? (Is there an area of your life where you know what God wants, but you’ve been making excuses, rationalizing, or doing what seems right in your own eyes?)

3. Who or what is shaping you right now, the world or God? (Think beyond what you believe and look at your actual life. What influences your attitudes, reactions, priorities, entertainment, conversations, and decisions? If someone watched your life for a week, what would they conclude is shaping you most?)

4. When doing what is right costs you something, how do you typically respond? (Have you ever compromised what you knew was right because standing firm would have created conflict, cost you something, disappointed someone, or made you look bad? What did that situation reveal about what you were most afraid of losing?)

5. If Jesus measured your life by one audience (the Father), what would He want you to change right now? (What is one specific area where you know you need to move from knowing what is right to actually doing what is right? What is one practical step you can take this week to obey God in that area?)