1. When you hear the word confession, what is your first thought?

2. Have you ever thought about confession as a gift? How does this ring true?

3. Confession gives us security, forgiveness, and family. What’s another gift you might add to

this list?

4. Security. We live in a world that is infected with insecurity. What is the source of our culture’s rampant insecurity? How could confession help?

5. Forgiveness. We know confession leads to forgiveness—but we don’t always act that way.

What is it about the gift of forgiveness that is so difficult to receive?

6. Family. In his book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes,

“He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone…in confession the break-through to community

takes place…if a Christian is in the fellowship of confession with a brother he will never be alone

again, anywhere.”

How does confession bring people together and enhance friendship?

7. We typically think confession is for the bad things we’ve done—which are often referred as as sins of commission” But confession is also for the good things we have not done—also known as sins of ommission. How can our failure to act be sinful? Think of some examples.

8. Repentance is a key phrase in the process of confession and forgiveness. Unfortunately, “repentance” is often reduced to mean the same thing as an apology; saying “we’re sorry” after caught in the act. But repentance is so much more. Not only does it mean we’re sorry for our sin, but repentance means we grieve what our sin does to ourselves, God, and others—so much so that we turn our backs to that sin and go the other direction to make things right. Repentance isn’t just apologizing. It’s intentionally righting our wrongs.

Have you experienced the difference between confession with and without repentance?

What impact did repentance make?

​9. What is the difference between talking to God and talking with God?

10. Saying we heard something “from God” can sound a little crazy; and yet most of us would say we’ve heard from God at least once in our life, in one way or another. If this is the case for you, discuss a time you heard God speak. How did you respond?

11. How could our everyday lives change if we spent our days in a back and forth conversation with God?

12. If hearing from God sounds crazy, then it’s time to get crazy! Take a few moments to complete the following statements.

The kind of prayer life I want to have with God looks like…

I think this might be stopping me from getting there…

13. What are some things that are stopping us from having a more conversational relationship with God?

14.  What is one change that you are going to make this week to help you hear from God?

15.  Do you still have questions about prayer? Process them with your discipler.

16. Spend the next week experimenting in conversational prayer with God. We’ve included some simple steps to get you going. Look these over and remember: prayer is as much about hearing God as it’s about talking to him. If this is new to you, remember there’s no right or wrong way to start. Just start.