When it comes to conversing with others about faith, most of us fear our own inadequacy, somehow believing that we don't have what it takes to be "successful" at taking the good news about Jesus to others. Yet, if Jonah is any indication, God is not limited by the inadequacy, reluctance and imperfection of the messanger. In fact, what God really requires is not our ability, but our availability, our willingness to just show up and say what it is that God has asked us to say. Jonah 3 assures us that, if we do our part, God will certainly do his part!

To process further this Sunday's conversation, talk through the questions below with your group, your family or a circle of friends. Feel free to even post your own questions below to challenge and inspire the rest of us!

1. What is one thing that you said—to yourself, to others or to God—that you would NEVER do but you ended up doing anyway?

  • Why do we feel this impulse to announce what we will "never do"? What do those declarations give to us?
  • Why do we end up going back on them and doing them anyway? What does that teach us about ourselves?
  • What do those kinds of moments teach us about our relationship with, and obedience to, God?

 

2. Read Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (at least; consider reading the whole chapter). Have you ever witnessed this kind of "Ninevite conversion", where someone's life was instantly, fully and radically transformed by Jesus? What happened?

  • What created that amazing response in their lives? What circumstances prepared them for it? How did it happen?
  • What was God's role in their incredible story? What happened that only God could do?
  • Who did God use to bring it about? What was their role? How did it compare to God's role?

 

3. Why do we tend to put so much pressure on ourselves to be "effective" or "successful" at sharing our faith, rather than just "doing our part" and letting God do his part?

  • What are you most afraid of, when you think about sharing your faith? What causes you to be nervous or feel inadequate? Why is this your fear?
  • Are you comforted at all by what God was able to do through Jonah, an inadequate, reluctant, imperfect, needing-to-be-saved prophet, who preached for the wrong reasons and with the wrong attitude? Why or why not?
  • Read Mark 4:26-29. How would it change the way we approach sharing our faith if we really believed that this parable was true? How would it change how we pray?

 

4. Think about one relationship that you have with someone who needs to know and love Jesus. What kinds of behaviours would we be more deliberate about if we were more intentional about "doing our part"?

  • Read 1 Corinthians 3:5-6. What kinds of "tasks" might God want to assign to us, in partnering together with him to cause "growth"? What does it look like to "sow a seed"? What does it look like to "water"?
  • Read Luke 12:11-12. If the Holy Spirit is to give us the words, why do we stress so much about what to say? How do we learn to rely on him for this?
  • What does sharing faith look like for people who are just "regular, normal, real, thoughtful, caring, inadequate, reluctant, but interested human beings"? What kinds of normal things "count" as sharing our faith? How can we do these more?

 

5. Read Colossians 4:2-6. What kinds of things should we be more intentional about praying about, so that God will "do his part"?

  • Pray for a heart that, unlike Jonah, is broken over the sin and suffering of those who don't yet know and love Jesus.
  • Pray for people you know who don't know and love Jesus, that they would be intrigued by the "possibility of God".
  • Pray for the ears to hear, and eyes to recognize, the "tasks" that God is assigning to you and the "words" God is asking you to speak.
  • Pray for the courage to act and speak when God calls you to do so.