Four Weeks Forward
WEEK TWO
PRAYER
This week we will focus on PRAYER. Prayer is talking to God, and having a conversation with Him.
You will want to have a Bible to read the recommended passages, and a notebook to answer the questions.
DAY ONE
Incantations and utterances
Say the magic word is what we tell little kids when we want them to say please to get something from us. It’s also what a magician says at the show to get the audience to say abracadabra to make the magic happen.
Sometimes the new Christian might feel like they don’t know the right words to get God to move sometimes in the midst of being around people with a lot longer history of following Christ, a new believer can feel inadequate and how they pray, like they don’t have the same power in their words to God. But this is the mistake of believing in incantations, magic words that make God do something for us. Like a genie and a bottle. A preaching hero of mine once reminded his congregation of the powerful reality of prayer, saying, prayer in the Christian life is not for us to get our way in heaven, but for God to get his way done on earth. So prayer isn’t the please from the child to their daddy to do something for them. And prayer isn’t the abracadabra from the crowd to get the magician to wild them.
We pray simply to talk to God, and to be reminded that he is on the throne of our lives and we want him to rule over our will and our ways.
Which means we can pray very simply. Dom John Chapman once said, pray, as you can, not as you can’t. And no matter how long you’ve been following Jesus, if you know how to speak, simple words, even basic utterances like thank you, then you know how to pray!
Read Matthew 6:7-13, which is often called the Lords prayer.
- What are some initial observations you make of how Jesus teaches us to pray?
- What stands out to you about Matthew 6:7-8?
- Jesus says we are to pray like this in verse 9. Like this is an analogy or simile, meaning in like form, and not these exact words. God isn’t worried we get the words right, he’s worried we have the heart right. What in verses 9–13 shows us that Jesus is demonstrating a right heart of prayer?
Pray for God to give you a heart that desires to worship him!
DAY TWO
Fish and lungs
Fish live in the water and swim and breathe as oxygen passes through their gills. To fish to swim always and keep breathing seems absurd. It’s what a fish does! One of the functional systems of the human body is a respiratory system. This is often called an involuntary system because it needs no thinking to happen , we just breathe.
The Christians air is prayer, and the Christians along our prayer, and the Christians power is prayer!
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 And see what God’s word says
- How can you relate to the image of breathing and praying based on these two verses?
- What do you think it means to pray without ceasing?
- Think about verse 18 for a moment. What are the situations in which you don’t typically pray? How can you learn to pray in these moments?
Pray that God would allow you to maintain a healthy habit of worshiping him and praying to him!
DAY THREE
Worry and meditation
Hopefully by now you’ve had a few opportunities to pray to the Lord and it’s been an enriching time for your soul. Take a moment and record one take away from your past few days that has been rewarding.
Read Philippians 4:6-7
- Worry and anxiety seem to be increasingly familiar themes in our culture today. When we are worried, we turn over situations in our hearts in minds we think on our problems constantly. What does this passage tell us about worry and prayer?
- To meditate on something means to keep thinking over it. If you’ve ever worried about anything, you’ve already meditated! In the Old Testament writers of the Psalms are constantly encouraging us to meditate on God’s word. How would you describe the relationship between meditation and prayer?
- Look at verse six. Many people think that prayer is just to get stuff from God. But what does this verse indicate to you about how we are to make request known to God?
Pray today for God to know your anxiety, and to help you meditate on Him with thanksgiving.
DAY FOUR
The Christian playbook
Football teams have pretty complicated plays that they run. A rushing play, where the quarterback hands off the ball to someone to to run it downfield, is a pretty simple play. A passing play gets pretty complicated. The quarterback is trying to read the defense, see who is open, remember the routes that each player will be taking, and successfully make the pass to the right teammate. you try it. It’s complicated.
Sometimes in life, we feel like a quarterback, trying to read the defense around us to know what to do. We wish we had the play in the playbook.
Read James 5:13–16 and record your observations
- Does this seem like a playbook to you? What life situations is James addressing?
- What is the play?
- What does this signal to you about the importance of prayer and how we practice it?
- James 5:16 is a well known verse because it shows us the power of prayer. How powerful does James say prayer is and how do you know that?
Embedded in this verse is the word righteous. Righteousness is a word that means harmony within a relationship. In genesis, we find that Noah was a righteous man, so God chose him to build the ark and be spared. He and God were at peace with one another. And one of the great things about accepting Christ death on the cross for you as a payment for your sins and for your forgiveness is that God calls us righteous. Read this verse again, and where it says a righteous person insert your name. And then praise God for the grace, we have to speak to him!
DAY FIVE
When the answer isn’t yes
Little kids are awful when it comes to understanding why their parents withhold things from them. My son, when he was little often asked for ice cream, or to buy a puppy, or to visit Papa, who lives in another state. And typically the answer to these questions is no for the simple matter of practicality. Though he likes dogs, he’s not ready to take care of the dog And ice cream at 10 AM leads to a cranky kid and cranky parents. So parental wisdom says, no. But key seldom understands and will ask again.
God operates with fatherly love for us in the same way.We’re prone to coming to God and asking him for things he knows we’re not ready to handle. Sometimes it’s a relationship with the significant other that we crave, yet God sees our current situation and knows we would be crushed by a relationship right now and he says no. Sometimes, it’s a job promotion that doesn’t come to fruition. God says no for various reasons.
How should we respond to a disappointment and frustration of the answer? No when it comes from God?
Read 2 Corinthians 12:1– 10, paying special attention to versus 7–9.
Don’t get hung up on the strangeness of Paul saying a man went to the third heaven, nor that God sent a th who was a messenger of Satan. Those aren’t the point that he’s trying to make. The point lies in versus 8–9. But to get to the point, we want to know, what he’s talking about. So Read and record your observations.
- How many times did Paul pray that his thorn would be taken from him?
- In verse 7, Paul says there was a reason he was experiencing this particular problem, which he calls a thorn. (by the way, nobody knows what the specific situation was that he calls his thorn. It might have been a chronic physical pain or illness. It might have been persecution from people who hated Christians.) what was the reason Paul suggested why God allowed this thorn in his life?
- Through prayer Jesus response to Paul And verse nine. We don’t believe this was an audible voice voice that you hear out loud, like the radio. But what does Jesus say to Paul?
- How does this help him endure the circumstances that he is enduring?
- Look at first 10 in specifically Paul’s outlook on his circumstances does this seem like how you’d like to describe your life? Notice how he got here by pleading with God? He was a man who prayed and sought the Lord.
Ask God to make you into the man or woman who has these qualities in your life!
TELL YOUR STORY
If you have found a message of hope in Jesus, we want to know your story! Tell us how you came to know Christ and the change He has made in your life.