Here are some questions based on last Sunday’s sermon text (John 9:1-7), in case they’re helpful to you for personal growth or group discussion…

• [1-2] Have you deliberately (perhaps subconsciously) distanced yourself from sufferers? If so, why? How do you justify it? Does God distance himself from those who are suffering?

• [3-5] We cannot explain the reason for suffering by saying that, ultimately, things are bad (e.g., “I’m being punished for sin,” or, “It’s a fallen, broken world”). God is able to superintend all things—including bad things like suffering—as opportunities for us to meet him and grow in our relationship to him in Christ. Paul writes, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Do you believe it’s worth enduring all things in order to know Christ in all his glory?

• [6-7] Jesus is the only one who can restore our spiritual sight, who can “give us eyes to see” God as he truly is. What does that mean for your own personal relationship to God? For your friends who do not yet know God?