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This
Is Not A Bible Study In As Much As It Is A Call To Change Your
Life For And Through Christ
Objective:
To show the need for prayer.
God wants us to
pray to Him. Sure
He already knows what we need and want but prayer is not
just about asking God for things it is also about
getting close and personal with your best friend.
In our lifetimes we spend a countless number of
hours talking to and listening to our friends, our
families and many other people we come in contact with
on a daily basis, but each day many of us fail to
include God in our conversation.
Prayer is about
building a relationship with your Heavenly Father.
Prayer
is about reverence for your Heavenly Father.
Prayer
is about getting close to God
How do
you get close to someone? The answer is by getting to
know them. One
way to get to know God is by reading the Bible another
way is by praying. Talking
to God draws you closer to God in your heart, where it
counts.
Prayer
- What the Bible says - How Do We Pray?
Jesus
taught the importance of being close to God and in
putting God first in all things.
The twelve guys we know as the disciples watched
Jesus for the better part of three years as He related
to God in a personal and intimate way.
They watched Him pray and talk to his father as
if He were sitting right next to Him, which we now know
He was. I
would imagine Jesus lived a life of ceaseless prayer.
Whether he was waling a dusty road or sitting in
a boast on the water Jesus prayed.
Finally
one day the disciples approached Jesus and asked this
question of Him “How do we pray?”
The disciples desired the same close relationship
with God that Jesus had, but they weren’t quite sure
how to talk to God in such an intimate way. After all
God was someone they look at with reverence.
They never really learned how to pray. Should
their prayers be official or just casual conversations?
What was the right or wrong way to pray?
In Matthew 6:9-13, we
read what Jesus instructed them to do
Take
the time now to read the Lord’s Prayer and answer the
following questions
In
verses 5-8 Jesus talks of preparing ourselves to pray.
What do these verses tell us about how we are to
prepare ourselves to pray?
Break
down the Lord’s Prayer into the specific areas of
prayer and specific requests.
How does each relate to your life?
Is
there a set order to the Lord’s Prayer and if so what
can we learn about prayer from it?
Does
Jesus’ example help you at all in the preparation and
content of your prayers?
Do
you think after reading the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus
meant this as the only way we should pray or as an
example of how we could pray?
Prayer
- What the Bible says – When should we pray?
To Jesus prayer
was a way of life. Jesus
prayed to His Father for advice, Jesus prayer to His
Father for intercession, Jesus prayed to His father for
thankfulness in fact Jesus prayed to His Father
constantly. It
was a vital part of His life.
It
should be the same with us.
Read the following verse and write down what they
tell about when to pray.
1
Thessalonians 5:17
Ephesians
6:18
Luke
21:36
Luke
18:1
These
verses show us when we should pray.
What did you find out about your prayer time from
these verses? Do
you pray, as you ought to?
If not it is time to take your relationship with God to the next level and
being to pray, as you should.
It is the one sure way you can become more
intimate with your Creator and begin to reap the
benefits of prayer.
Prayer
- What the Bible says – What are the benefits of
prayer?
Communication
We
have already discussed the importance of prayer as
communication between you and God. Another aspect of
this is how can we say we love God unless we are willing
to share our heart with Him.
Prayer
for the Christian is NOT
a duty. It is part of fellowship with a personal God-or
Heavenly Father.
Read
2 Chronicles 7:14 mediate on what this verse is telling
you to do.
Joining
in Purpose
As
we pray we join in God’s purpose for our lives, which
is communication with Him.
We were created to have a close relationship with
God. Prayer
is a crucial part of that close relationship.
We can also through prayer join in the purpose of
other Christians. An
example is prayer for missionaries.
We all cannot go to the mission field, but
through prayer we are right there alongside those who
have been called; we are joined in their purpose of
spreading God’s word.
Read
Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:15-23 and then write down
some ideas about what these verses have to do with
prayer being defined as a joining in purpose.
Confession
of Sin
While
it is true that when we came to know Christ as our
Savior our debit was paid and our sins past, present and
future are forgiven.
This does not mean however that sin does not
cause a separation between God and us.
Unconfessed sin can cause our relationship with
God to be strained just as sinful acts can come between
you and anyone. We
need to confess to God what we have done wrong in order
to restore a right relationship with God.
Read
1 John 1:9 and James 5:16, what do these verses tell you
about confessing your sin to God?
Prayer
- What the Bible says – What are the hindrances to
prayer?
Lack of a Burden for
Others
As
Christians our hearts should be burdened for the souls
of the lost. This
burden should show up in the way we pray to God for the
salvation of others. The problem is that sometimes we
forget to feel that burden, as we should.
This becomes a hindrance to us because we no
longer go to God, as we should.
Read
1 Timothy 2:1-2. What
does Paul say about praying for others?
Praying
for others is a way to show we care.
It is a way to say that you matter to me. We must
remember that there are many others out there who do not
know what it is like to fee; the love and forgiveness of
Christ.
A
Faulty Relationship
Are
your right with God and others?
Most of the time when we do not feel the need to
pray or feel that our prayers are being heard it is
because of a broken relationship with God or some wrong
we have committed against someone else and have failed
to rectify. We
need to feel remorse for these situations and come to
God or the other person and ask for forgiveness.
Read
1John 2:1-2. What
does this verse tell us about what happens when we sin?
Prayer
is important to our right relationship with God.
Prayer also draws us into a close and intimate
relationship with God.
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