Week 11 - Pray
This week in summary| Day 1 : Our Father | John 17 |
| Day 2 : The Community that Prays | Psalm 51 |
| Day 3 : Broken Prayers | Daniel 9 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Habakkuk 3 |
| Day 5 : An Hour of Prayer | James 5 |
| Day 1 : Our Father | John 17 |
| Day 2 : The Community that Prays | Psalm 51 |
| Day 3 : Broken Prayers | Daniel 9 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Habakkuk 3 |
| Day 5 : An Hour of Prayer | James 5 |
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
Matthew 6:9-13
Everything we need to know about prayer comes back to these two words: "Our Father". God is my father. Go ahead and say it out loud:
"God is my Father."
Everything God does is better than we could ever do including being Father. God is the best kind of Father and He is your Father. Let that soak in. What do you want to say to your Father?
It makes sense that Jesus would address God as his Father, but He uses the plural: our. We approach God together as a community with no division based on income, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion or any other separation that humanity imposes on itself. Jesus opens the door so that we all share in this special relationship to God. Everyone in Jesus is a child of God and part of one divine family. 'Our Father,' with these two words Jesus has offered unparalleled intimacy and community with God.
The world is out of alignment. God is all powerful, yet most of humanity disobeys him. God's reputation is better than any other, yet most of humanity would rather pursue mundane interests. How much evil in the world would stop when we obey God and give him the respect He is due? We need God to intervene.
Same issue as before, but this time we have a part. Humanity is not doing God's will, but we can submit our allegiance toward God. This is in our hands. His Kingdom comes when we give Him our full allegiance and obey Him. Instead of giving God the leftovers scraps of our lives hoping that will appease Him, we can Give God our whole selves.
Do you really need God to provide food or do you have a fridge full in your kitchen and money coming in to buy your meals today and tomorrow? Is your life made up of things you have provided for yourself, or things you had to rely on God to provide? They say you are what you eat, are you the product of God's provision or your own?
For those in need, "give us our daily bread" needs no explanation. For those with excess this prayer is a call to action. What do you believe God wants you to do?
Growing relationships require maintenance even our relationship with God. Forgiveness is important to reconcile with God not just at the beginning but as we continue to grow. Forgiveness is important as we learn how to trust God and learning how to be trustworthy to Him.
The most effective temptation isn't turning from God to total depravity but simply choosing my will over God's will. Evil tempts us in small personal ways. Our struggle for faithfulness isn't won or lost in the grand obvious things in life but the small daily struggles. The question stands over all our choices, our possessions and all our mistakes: "Will you give this to Jesus, or will you keep it for yourself?"
A study by Mark Moore
The book of Acts is, in many ways a blue print of how to "do church." Prayer is an excellent example. Prayer is mentioned in one form or another 10 times in Matthew, 12 times in Mark, and 5 times in John. But Luke mentions it 19 times in his gospel and 32 times in Acts.
Look up the following Scripture passages and see if they don't give you some practical guidelines for prayer.
* Accompanied by fasting
Jesus expected us to be a community that prays together. He constantly used words like "our" and "us." Prayer is a powerful thing. "Prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much." How much more powerful the prayer of a righteous community?
But when you pray in community make sure your only audience is God; not the people in the room. Some people pray for show and the community will see them as pious. But a "show prayer" isn't really a prayer, it's just a show. Real pray can have many participants but only one audience ever: God.
"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:5-8
You can't exhaust God into relenting. You can't entice God because He doesn't need anything you have. Instead when you pray, speak simply. He's your Father and He wants you on the same page with Him. So beware attempting persuasive tactics with God. He's not your adversary. He's your Father - I can't emphasize that enough. He wants to give you good gifts.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:7-11
My prayers too often sound like a Christmas wish list. Most of my pray time is spent trying to persuade God to give me what I want. Jesus gave his followers an example prayer ("Our Father..." Matthew 6:9-13) While most of His prayer is filled with requests to God, look again at how often the request is actually for humanity to obey and revere God. Surprisingly most of the content of the prayer directs humanity to obey God's will and realistically we need God's assistance for the simple steps of obedience. Jesus shows us prayer is a place to bend our will towards God's. Only with my will submitted to God's can we move forward with anything else.
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
Isaiah 59:1-3
A full hour of community prayer can be a daunting thing but it is highly rewarding. Try to work your way up to it beginning with 15 minutes dedicated to praying as a team.
It can help to have a loose outline of 5 topics for everyone to follow. For example try praying as a group for 3 minutes on one topic followed by 3 minutes on another topic and then another until the 15 minutes are completed.
At the next prayer session try for 20 minutes by praying for 4 minutes per topic. And continue increasing time until you are praying for an hour at a time.
Consider the following five topics to get started:
How great is God?
What does God means to you personally?
How are you struggling to trust God?
How are you struggling with the world?
How has God blessed you?
Remember even though the setting is a group, your prayers should be for God.