Book Club Questions for Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table

1.Giglio opens the book by framing Psalm 23 not just as a comfort psalm but as a warfare psalm. Had you ever read Psalm 23 that way before? What shifts for you when you see verse 5 — "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies" — as the centerpiece rather than just a nice detail?

2.The core image of the book is a table set by God, at which we are invited to sit — but at which the Enemy has no rightful seat. Why do you think so many of us keep unconsciously "pulling up a chair" for the Enemy anyway?

3.Giglio establishes that the battle being described is primarily a battle for the mind. What does that mean practically? How is a battle fought in the mind different from the kinds of battles we might more easily recognize?

1.Giglio introduces the idea that the Good Shepherd is not passive — He actively leads, restores, and fights for His sheep. How does that active, pursuing image of Jesus challenge or expand your normal picture of Him?

2.The chapter draws a sharp contrast between the voice of the Shepherd and the voice of the Enemy. Jesus says His sheep know His voice (John 10). Practically speaking, how do you tell the difference between the two in your daily thought life?

3.Giglio points out that "the Lord is my Shepherd" is a declaration of ownership and relationship, not just a comforting metaphor. What is the difference between saying "the Lord is *a* shepherd" and "the Lord is *my* Shepherd"? What does it require of you to make it personal?

1.Giglio argues that the battle for your life is really a battle for your mind — and that what you think will ultimately determine how you live. Do you agree? Can you point to a season of your life when your thought life directly shaped the direction your life took?

2.The phrase "take every thought captive" (2 Corinthians 10:5) is central to this chapter. What does it mean to you to *take* a thought captive, rather than just trying to stop thinking it? What is the active move Giglio is describing?

3.Giglio describes the moment a thought enters your mind as the critical fork in the road — you can entertain it or arrest it. What makes entertaining a destructive thought feel so natural and immediate, while arresting it feels so difficult and unnatural?

1.Giglio describes fear as one of the Enemy's primary tactics for hijacking our minds and immobilizing us. What specific fears have most powerfully "taken a seat" in your life in this season? Fear of failure, rejection, the future, illness, being found out?

2.Psalm 23:4 says "I will fear no evil, for You are with me." Notice the psalmist doesn't say "there is no evil" — the valley is real. How does acknowledging the reality of the danger while still choosing not to fear actually model a more courageous, not more naive, kind of faith?

3.Giglio draws a distinction between a healthy, reverent fear of God and the destructive, paralyzing fear the Enemy peddles. How do those two kinds of fear function differently in a person's life?

1.Ephesians 4:26–27 says "In your anger do not sin" — which means anger itself is not inherently sinful. But the very next verse warns against giving the devil a "foothold." How does unresolved anger become that foothold? What does the progression look like?

2.Giglio makes the case that there is a righteous anger — anger at injustice, at evil, at the things that grieve God's heart. How do you tell the difference between righteous anger and the kind that gives the Enemy a seat? What are the telltale signs of each?

3.Think about a current or recent situation in which you have felt significant anger. Without going into unnecessary detail, what is the "story" anger is telling you about that situation? Is that story entirely accurate?

1.Giglio argues that shame and insecurity are among the Enemy's favorite weapons because they go after identity — they don't just say "you did something bad," they say "you *are* bad." How have you experienced that distinction between guilt (what I did) and shame (who I am) in your own life?

2.The image of a table being prepared *for you* — by name, with care — is a direct assault on the shame that says you don't belong or don't deserve a place. What does it do to your sense of self when you let the reality of that image actually land?

3.Ephesians 1 is a cascade of declarations about who you are in Christ — chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, lavished with grace. Giglio suggests that the antidote to insecurity is immersing yourself in these truths until they become more real to you than your feelings. How do you actually do that? What has worked for you, and what hasn't?

1.Giglio is careful to distinguish between anxiety as a medical and psychological reality (which may require professional care) and anxiety as a spiritual attack that feeds on legitimate fears. Why is that distinction important? How do you hold both of those realities at the same time without dismissing either?

2.Philippians 4:6–7 instructs us to "not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." The promise that follows — a peace that "transcends all understanding" — is remarkable. Have you experienced that kind of peace in the middle of a genuinely anxious situation? What did it feel like?

3.Giglio describes anxiety as a kind of mental loop the Enemy engineers — a spiral where one worry leads to another, cascading into a worst-case-scenario story. What does your personal anxiety spiral typically look like? What thought usually starts it?

1.Giglio frames temptation not as a sign that something is wrong with you, but as a confirmation that the Enemy knows where you are seated and wants to pull you away from it. How does that reframe the experience of being tempted?

2.James 1:13–15 traces the progression from temptation to sin to death: desire is conceived, grows, and produces sin. Giglio uses this sequence to show that the time to refuse the Enemy a seat is at the very beginning — not after the desire has grown. At what point in that progression do you most often try to intervene? Why is earlier always better?

3.1 Corinthians 10:13 promises that with every temptation, God provides "a way out." Giglio emphasizes that we have to actually *look* for and *take* that exit. Think of a specific recurring temptation in your life: what does the "way out" typically look like in that situation? Have you been taking it?

1.Giglio describes despair as the Enemy's closing argument — the whisper that says "nothing will ever change, you'll never get free, this is just who you are." Have you heard that argument in your own mind? What specific form does it take for you?

2.Psalm 23 ends with "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" — not "sometimes" or "if I'm good enough," but *surely*, *all the days*. How does that declaration land when you are in a season where goodness and mercy feel absent?

3.Romans 8:31 asks, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Giglio pushes on that word "for" — not just that God is neutral or watching from a distance, but actively, personally *for* you. What would change in your interior life if you were fully convinced that God is for you in that complete sense?

1.Giglio closes by calling readers to a daily, intentional practice of refusing the Enemy a seat. What does that look like as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time decision? What makes it a practice rather than a moment?

2.Ephesians 6 describes the full armor of God — and Giglio has in many ways been unpacking that armor throughout the book. Looking back at the chapters you've studied, which piece of the armor has felt most neglected in your own life, and which has felt most actively engaged?

3.John 10:10 gives us the Enemy's agenda in one phrase: "to steal, kill, and destroy" — and then gives us Jesus' agenda in one phrase: life, and life "to the full." As you finish this book, what does "life to the full" look like for you specifically? What would need to change for that to become your experience?

1.When you read Psalm 23 now, compared to when you first picked up this book, what do you hear that you didn't hear before? Which verse or phrase has been most transformed for you by this study?

2.Looking back across all the chapters — fear, anger, shame, anxiety, temptation, despair — which theme addressed a battle you didn't even fully recognize as a spiritual battle until you read about it? How does naming it change your relationship with it?

3.Which single chapter or concept from this book has had the most significant impact on your daily life? Can you point to a specific moment, decision, or shift in your thought life that happened as a result of something Giglio wrote?