Having a Mary Spirit by Joanna Weaver
Week 8: Chapter 7 — The Hungry Heart
Read Chapter 7 of Having a Mary Spirit. Key passages: Matthew 5:6; Psalm 42:1–2; John 6:35.
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Weaver argues that the level of our spiritual hunger determines the degree of our transformation—and this week she diagnoses why so many of us are spiritually malnourished without knowing it.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1."Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Weaver takes this beatitude seriously as a diagnostic tool. On a scale of 1–10, how hungry are you for God right now—and what do you think has shaped your current level of hunger?
2.The author draws on Psalm 42's image of the deer panting for water. She observes that we can go through all the motions of a spiritual life—church, Bible reading, small group—while our souls remain dehydrated. What is the difference between spiritual activity and genuine spiritual hunger?
3.Weaver identifies several "hunger substitutes"—things we reach for to fill the soul's appetite that can never actually satisfy it. What are your most frequent hunger substitutes? What do you reach for when your soul is restless?
a.How do these substitutes temporarily quiet the hunger without addressing it?
b.What do your substitutes reveal about what you are actually longing for?
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