If your life was literally flashing before your eyes, what three moments or scenes from your past that you would expect to stand out?

1. Were you able to finish reading chapter one? What are some of your first thoughts and impressions after reading about the beginning of Pastor Cymbala's story?

2. When Jim Cymbala, the new pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, realized the church didn't have enough money to pay its mortgage, he prayed and asked God to provide. In what way(s) did God's faithful provision of a $100 anonymous donation help to prepare Jim and his wife, Carol, for what was to come in their ministry?

After a Sunday evening service that began with Pastor Cymbala being too depressed to preach, God helped him discover that "God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him. Our weakness, in fact, makes room for his power." (p. 19)

3. Read 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. What does it mean to be "weak" as a follower of Jesus Christ?

n2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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4. Why is coming face to face with one's own weakness so important for a follower of Jesus Christ?

5. Have you seen God's attraction to weakness evident in your own life? Have you witnessed your weakness making room for His power to show up? If you feel comfortable share about that experience(s).

While Pastor Cymbala was on a fishing boat recovering from a lung ailment, he sensed God saying to him, "If you and your wife will lead my people to pray and call upon my name, you will never lack for something fresh to preach." (p. 25) God then affirmed his commitment to provide vital funds.

Many times in the Bible, God uses the word if when talking about the way he wants to bless us: if we seek him, if we love one another, etc.

6. Why does God sometimes make what he will do for us conditional on our hunger for him?

7. Throughout Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Pastor Cymbala emphasizes the importance of prayer. How would you describe the relationship between prayer and seeing the Holy Spirit work in our lives? In our church?

9. What would you say right now are 3 items we need to call upon the Lord to do?