[Editor’s Note: We are delighted to welcome Robert Nohr and Dee Piekarek as a new contributors to our Teacher Aids resources. You can check their bio at the bottom of this post.]

1. What problems have you seen in people for whom everything has always gone right or easy?

   

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2. How would your walk with God be different if you had never experienced a setback or hardship?
     
3. Can you share a concrete fruit of character or spiritual growth that came to you through either a failure, a loss, or hardship?
     
4. Which example in the lesson’s list of Biblical “setbacks” can you most relate to? And why? (Job, woman with 38 yr illness, Disciples right after Jesus’ crucifixion, disciples in the boat during the storm who question if Jesus cares—-or another Biblical example). Or: What setback in life has been your most painful?
     
5. What is your first emotional reaction when something important to you is threatened (health, finances, relationship, goal, etc)? What is your first spiritual reaction? Has your spiritual reaction changed over time and experience?
     
6. Is it wrong to feel fear, anxiety, sadness, or anger when something dear in life to us is threatened, lost, or changed in ways we did not want? Why or why not?
     
7. What do you think Jesus’ first “word” to us is, when we suffer? On what do you base your answer?
     
8. What is the difference between grieving a loss and failing to have enough  faith?
     
9. How does the cross of Christ specifically change the meaning of suffering, compared to every other religion or philosophy?
     
10. What does Jesus mean by “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Jn 12:24
      
11. Paul sums up the great truth of Christian faith in 2 Cor 12:9 when, after praying for relief from suffering, he tells us how Christ responded to the prayer: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In what ways is this “message” extremely different from what “the world” tells us today about hardships? About suffering? About power?
      
12. The example of Job shows us that sometimes our approach to others’ suffering is not helpful and can even selfishly reflect our need to make their situation less distressing for us. What is the potential flaw in approaching others who are suffering and telling them “God is just building your character?” or “God’s will is perfect so don’t question?” What is a guaranteed successful way to mediate God’s presence to them instead?

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