Please use one of the prompts below to get your journaling started.

• Explore your fears and what’s behind them.
• Write about a relational conflict you are experiencing.
• List out all that you are grateful for.
• Recall a significant reaction, conversation or event.

 Here are some tools to help you with the devotionals:

• A Guide to Journaling & Prayer
• A Guide to Self-Reflection
• A Chart to help articulate feelings

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” ^{[[1]] 17} And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

[1] Mark 7:15 Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear

Questions

The gospel of Mark opens with these words:

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  

And Jesus’ first message to the world was:

Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Please choose from one or more of the prompts below to reflect over and apply today’s text.

• What do I need to repent of? 
• What false beliefs do I need to reject? 
• What do I need to believe? 
• How is the gospel good news for me?
• What does this text reveal about Jesus?
• What does this text reveal about me?

Prayer