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Lesson OneWhy Pray?4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoWhy Not Ask?4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeWhen You Don’t Know What to Say4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourObstacles to Prayer4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FivePraying for Others4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixPraying with Others4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenPrayer and Fasting4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightWhat about “Unanswered” Prayer?4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NinePersevering in Prayer4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenLiving a Prayer-Filled Life4 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 3
Discussion Questions
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How does Jesus teach us to go deeper in our asking when we pray?
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By using The Lord’s Prayer as a tool for praying.
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Jesus taught us the Lord’s prayer as a model for us to ask in our prayer. There are six requests in the Lord’s Prayer. The first three requests are about God, while the other three requests are focus on our needs. The needs are our daily bread, our forgiveness, and lead us not into temptation.
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He introduces the Lord Prayer to show us how we should pray properly – the structure is focuses first on God and then on us. There are many examples of Jesus praying in the Bible and we should be able to learn from his actions when praying.
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Jesus invites us into a relationship with him. He wants us to go beyond just asking for things in prayer, rather truly spending time with him, getting to know him. He shows the love of God in the sermon on the Mount. He reminds us that just as an earthly father would provide for his child so will our heavenly father. He shows us that God loves us so much despite who we are, sinful by nature, and wants to hear from us!
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We tend to get stuck on the things that we see in our lives that we need or want. If we are “advanced”, we might keep prayer journals and track other people’s needs so that we can pray for them too. But Jesus teaches us to remember to pray for eternal, Heavenly things first- to pray for God to be honored above all else, to pray for God’s kingdom to come soon, to pray for His will to be done here on Earth. By focusing on everlasting things and God’s will, we are put in the right mindset to pray for our needs and the needs of others.
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How does knowing that God wants us to ask help us when we come to Him?
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We can go to God’s throne of grace boldly and with confidence because He invites us to come and ask.
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Knowing removes any doubts, fears or limitations that we may have placed in the past concerning prayer. It enables us to come boldly before the throne of grace, sit at the feet of Jesus then depending on the circumstances seek His face or seek His hand.
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Similar to when our children know that they are dependent on their parents.
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It’s comforting.
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The biblical instruction concerning prayer is that we pray for the good things that we genuinely need, according to the will of God, in the authority of Jesus Christ, persistently (see Luke 18:1), unselfishly (see James 4:3), and in faith (see James 1:6). Knowing that God wants us to ask, we should be more ready to pray within His will, in the authority of Jesus, persistently, unselfishly, and in faith. By praying so, we will receive what we need according to His will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14-15).
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Why is dependence on God in prayer so important?
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When we live a life that is dependent on God and prayer it shows that we don’t depend on ourselves or have faith in ourselves to get anything accomplished. We come to Him with faith like a child fully trusting that He will take care of everything. It also shows us our priorities for living in God’s presence. Here is where we place God in the center of our lives. Acts 17:28
“For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.” -
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
We need to become ‘as children’ when we pray. We don’t need to put limitations on God. -
So we can cultivate a close relationship with our Father.
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Dependence on God shows we have no other choice but to trust in him while praying.
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Depending on GOD in Prayer, confirms that ‘we’ as Believers only hope in this sinful world is our reliance on the help & support of our Heavenly Father to make it daily; until Jesus returns and set HIS Kingdom up on Earth.✝️