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Intimacy with God  /  Chapter 1: Bearing the Cross  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 2
“Bearing the cross means to separate our souls from the delights and pleasures of this life,” and “dying to ourselves means being content with the necessities of life.” How does the chapter define “necessities,” and what current spending habits or comforts would be hardest to reclassify as non-necessary without self-justification?
Another way to ask: How does the chapter describe what counts as “necessities”? What spending habits or comforts would be hardest for you to admit are not truly necessary?

Direct Answer The transcript doesn’t give a detailed list of “necessities,” but it defines them by contrast: necessities are what we can be “content” with, while “more than these” easily becomes the doorway to sin and to being lured by pleasures. So necessities are the baseline of life, not the “delights and pleasures” that train desire.

Support from Transcript:

  • “Dying to ourselves means being content with the necessities of life.”
  • “When we want more than these necessities, it is easy to sin.”
  • Bearing the cross is “separate[ing] our souls from the delights and pleasures of this life.”
  • Evil powers offer “worldly honors… fleshly pleasures… alluring fantasies,” which suggests “non-necessary” comforts often overlap with these lures.
  • The intimate-with-God person handles “riches and poverty… work and pleasure” with “indifference,” implying that abundance and pleasure are not treated as needs.
Discussion Follow-ups Where do you most quickly argue, “I need this,” when it may be a comfort or status marker? How would contentment with necessities change your budgeting and entertainment choices?

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