Welcome to Sunday Fuel! This series of questions is designed to assist your personal reflection and fellowship with others about the sermon from this past Sunday.
We wrap up this study with the last three beatitudes that focus on how kingdom citizens pursue a pure, peacemaking and proclaiming heart in our relationships because of our King and His kingdom mission. Pick one of these truths to focus on.
Truth #1: Pursue a Pure Heart – v. 8
- If you struggle with purity of heart, ask God to help you see your sinful ways. Take a step back and consider your relationship with God in areas such as:
- What desires motivate you? Is it the honor of God or something else? Honestly address this and prayerfully ask Him to show you how you need to change.
- How does pride, independence, boastfulness, hungering for worldly power, prestige, or strength affect the purity of your heart and ruin your relationships?
- What are ways you have been hypocritical? Been false or deceitful in your motives? Double-minded, trying to live for two worlds?
- Confess your inability to cleanse yourself from the impurity in our hearts. Thank Him for Christ who has purified your heart so that you can be reconciled to God as His child. As one of his children, ask God to help you to become more like Christ, living in singular devotion to Him.
Truth #2: Pursue a Peacemaking Heart – v. 9
- Think of someone you currently struggle with relationally, especially people you live with or family members.
- How do you sinfully respond to those you live with—by your annoyance, disagreement, fighting, divisiveness? Are you seeking what you want or what would make for peace with others?
- Think about the fact that you have a new King and a new kingdom mission. You are no longer your own. How might that transform how you live for the Lord in your relationships today?
- If they are not believers, how might you serve them for their best—not just temporally but spiritually? How might you embody the peacemaking heart of God and extend His shalom to them as a witness? How can you reframe your expectations of them and extend mercy and grace instead? How might peacemaking be a way you can witness for Christ?
- How can you encourage peace to grow between yourself and other believers? How might your attitude make things worse? Consider also your actions: How can you respond differently with care and thoughtfulness—such as listening without rushing to judgment or solutions, humbly asking for forgiveness, or choosing to relinquish the battle and trusting God instead of fighting to be right. How might you grow in righteousness, even as you work through conflict?
Truth #3: Pursue a Proclaiming Heart – vv. 10-12
- Meditate on Christ, the prince of peace (Is. 9:7) who has helped make peace between holy God and sinful humans by bearing with persecution himself. How does the fact that proclaiming the gospel can be costly tempt you to stay quiet? Ask God for a pure and undivided heart that is willing to bear the discomfort for the sake of Christ.
- If you have tried to share the gospel but have been persecuted for it, how are you tempted to respond—by defending, arguing, or fighting back? Have you brought your experiences of persecution to the Lord and grieved for those who persecute you? How does this help you to understand Christ’s love for sinners a little better?
- If you are on the receiving end of persecution, including the pain of verbal ridicule, scorn, or insults, pray that the Lord will help you to take comfort in knowing that those who follow after Christ in obedience have gone before you. Thank God for the many faithful saints that have traveled this path. Ask Him to help you learn how to rejoice and be glad that we can share in his sufferings.