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X-RAY QUESTIONS

Often in struggles, trials or suffering, there are underlying heart issues driving much of people’s behaviors and responses to pain. Jesus was a master at drawing out people’s hearts through questions. We love our small group members well when we imitate Jesus by seeking to draw out their hearts. Here are fifteen heart-revealing x-ray questions*:
  1. What do you want, desire, crave, lust and wish for? What desires do you serve and obey?
  2. What do you seek, aim for and pursue?
  3. What do you not want in life? What do you tend to worry about?
  4. What do you think you need?
  5. What makes you tick? What do you organize your life around?
  6. Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, escape, pleasure and security?
  7. What or whom do you trust?
  8. On whose shoulders does the well-being of your world rest? Who can make it better, make it work, make it safe or make it successful?
  9. Whom must you please? Whose opinion of you counts?
  10. How do you define and weigh success and failure, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, in any particular situation?
  11. What would bring you the greatest pleasure, happiness and delight? The greatest pain or misery?
  12. What do you want to get out of life? What payoff do you seek out of the things you do?
  13. How do you spend your time? What are your priorities?
  14. In what do you place your trust, or set your hopes? What do you turn to or seek?
  15. Where do you find your identity? How do you define who you are?
*THESE QUESTIONS ARE TAKEN FROM DAVID POWLISON, “X-RAY QUESTIONS,” CHAPTER 7 IN SEEING WITH NEW EYES: COUNSELING AND THE HUMAN CONDITION THROUGH THE LENS OF SCRIPTURE (PHILLIPSBURG, NJ: PRESBYTERIAN & REFORMED, 2003), 129–43 (THESE QUESTIONS APPEAR ON PP. 132–40)