This weekend, we kicked off a new series, Relationships: Real & Restored, focusing on how the gospel restores and empowers the major relationships in our lives. As we took a closer look at friendship, we see that a true friend is life-giving (Acts 2:46), available (Proverbs 27:10), cares for you when life falls apart (Proverbs 17:7, Ecclesiastes 4:9-11), and speaks truth to you (Proverbs 24:26).
We all need friends who will be honest with us, because none of us is perfect! Having real, honest conversations with friends can be difficult at first, but we have a great resource from John Wesley, who used to gather regularly with a group of friends to ask each other the questions below. Use these as a helpful way to start a conversation with friends about what God is doing in your life, and to help you speak truth into one another’s life.
John Wesley’s Holy Club Accountability Questions
- Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? Am I a hypocrite?
- Am I honest in all my acts/words or do I exaggerate?
- Do I confidently pass on to another what I was told in confidence
- Can I be trusted?
- Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
- Am I self-conscious, self-pitying or self-justifying?
- Did the Bible live in me today?
- Do I give it (The Bible) time to speak to me every day?
- Am I enjoying prayer?
- When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
- Do I pray about the money I spend?
- Do I go to bed on time and get up on time?
- Do I disobey God in anything?
- Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
- Am I defeated in any part of my life?
- Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
- How do I spend my spare time?
- Am I proud?
- Do I thank God that I am not as others (especially as the Pharisees despised the publican)?
- Is there anyone I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so what am I doing about it?
- Do I grumble or complain constantly?
- Is Christ real to me?