Pray before we start as a group,
Introduction
Statement: “How often have we prayed something like, "O Lord, be with cousin Billy now in a special way"? Have we stopped to consider what it is we're requesting? Imagine that you are a parent who is preparing to leave your children with a babysitter. Would you dream of saying, "O Betsy, I ask you now that you would be with my children in a special way?" No way. You would say, "Betsy, the kids need to be in bed by 9 pm. They can have one snack before their baths, and please make sure they finish their homework. You can reach us at this number if there's any problem. Any questions before we go?" We are very specific with our requests and instructions for our babysitters. We want them to know specifics. It should be no different with prayer.”
David Jeremiah
Group time:
Do you agree with the statement? How straightforward should we be in prayer?
Anybody have anything they want to share from previous week?
Anything that has changed, any prayers been answered
Is there such a thing as a prayer routine, is it a good or a bad thing?
Do you know of any “heroes” of prayer, biblical or otherwise, what stood out because of their prayer lives?
How to pray
Using ACTS theme = Adoration – think of some of the things you know about him or read a Psalm, Confession, Thanksgiving – e.g. answered prayers, spiritual blessings, relational blessings and material blessings, and Supplication – the things we want to ask for
This doesn’t really allow for time in silence
Praying in a set way every time can just become a routine, feeling that it is just a job to get done
Need to create space for God to work
The Lord’s Prayer – not necessarily something we have to pray every time, can be the basis on which to form our prayers
Our father - dad
who art in Heaven - focusing yourself on God, God who is up in Heaven and also down here on earth
hallowed be thy name – praising God’s holy name, recognising who you are praying to, holy is your name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven – recognising that the world needs to change, seeing the world as God views it, we need to do the work, understanding how important God’s will is, justice issues
Give us this day our daily bread – please give us all we need to survive, e.g. bread, it’s not about our wants but about our needs
And forgive us our trespasses (sins/debts) as we forgive those that trespass against us (this means our sins, the things we do wrong) – this might be where you confess all your wrongs to God, but we need to forgive others as well, in this place we might be asking God for help with this, forgiveness and responsibility. Brings to mind the idea of “all trespassers will be prosecuted”
Lead us not in to temptation but deliver us from evil – help us against all that tries to attack us, the daily struggles we may face, evil that is against us. We don’t want to make lots of mistakes. We are living in the midst of temptation. Recognising that we need help.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever – again praising God, acknowledging his power and also that he is in control of all, asking for help in this world, in the things we face. We can’t do anything without God, can only do things with God, He is the beginning middle and end, his power is the beginning, middle and end.
Amen – let it be so
Task:
Put something under each ACTS on their piece of paper, can do it through drawing, words, poem, song, cartoon strip, anything, even colour it in! Your personal document, don’t have to show it to anyone. Move around, pray it, etc.
These things all focus on one thing, talking to God, no matter what is said is the priority.
Pray like you mean it, have an expectation of all that God can do (believe that God answers prayers), Acts 12:7-16, it can be so easy to offer prayers as like a wish, hoping something happens, this can be seen in the words we use – God can and does change people, we need to realise this
Hassle God until he answers (Luke 18:2-5) – we hear this parable about a widow who hassles a judge and it reminds us that we can keep asking God for something, he might not respond in any way we expect but we are encouraged to hassle him. In fact, we know how much a child wants something by how much they ask, sometimes we need to let God how serious we are about answering a prayer.
Bargaining? – I think this relates to hassling God, I don’t think we should bargain or test God on a regular basis but people in the bible did do it. In Genesis 18 we hear Abraham plead for the people of Sodom, asking if God would spare the city if 50 good men were there, then 40, 30, 20, 10 and each time God yielded.
Honesty (Psalm 10? Psalm 22? Job 31, Jonah 4) – we can be angry with God, we shouldn’t just pray thinking we need to say the “right words” – this is something that when I first read it really surprised me, honest, even angry but God is the commander of the universe and yet part of the relationship is the honesty, being angry and saying it when it happens, not seething or sulking. Honesty in any relationship is important, as in the relationship with God.
Some prayers get answered and some don’t but I believe that if it is something that is worrying us or in our hearts we can just ask, it is up to God what he does but asking in itself is part of the relationship, once asking we might realise we don’t want it anymore. It doesn’t necessarily matter how we come to God in prayer, we just come and let him take it from there
Ask God to reveal his will to us – in prayer it is not just about us but it is about God, we have to give him space, give him time to respond, not just speak and then close our ears. It is a relationship with our creator, not a plant.
Prayer isn’t a show – this can be really easy to understand fully, because others are listening and we can feel we should put in fancy words, respond in the right way and use it as a public service announcement but God is the same God and the thoughts of others aren’t that important, easier said than done.
It doesn’t necessarily matter how we come to God in prayer, we just come and let him take it from there
Video clip – Bruce Almighty
Group time
Where and when do you normally pray?
Have you ever used any stimuli in prayer? What difference did it make?
What other ways have you prayed? E.g. a prayer walk, sitting in a certain place, in a darkened room, etc
What would you recommend to others for prayer?
When and where should we pray?
Morning, evening? All day? Always? – Jesus prayed at different times of the day, it depends on when is most comfortable for us but praying throughout the day can also be effective for us, e.g. whenever you go to the loo (busy parents) or having regular slots. Maybe 5min slots as reminders on your phone, it doesn’t have to be the same way, words, etc all the time. Maybe you would benefit from a routine, maybe you wouldn’t, everyone is different.
With others, on our own? – in Acts we can see that people prayed in groups and although a lot of the gospel stories talk about Jesus praying by himself it isn’t the only way. There are benefits to both, e.g. praying with others can strengthen them, hearing the words of others talking to God, but it can also be really uncomfortable, people feeling unsure of themselves and not actually conversing with God but an audience. On our own can also be a struggle because we can forget, other things can come up and we let them take priority. However, it is us alone with God, focusing on him and nothing else. (It’s like exercising? It can become a chore rather than a pleasure, routine rather than relationship)
Shut out the white noise – frequently other things can take our attention when praying, it can be good to get away from tv, internet, mobile. There are so many things demanding our attention in this world and sometimes we need to shut it out. If we think about other things while praying, things not to forget we can write down, they can be part of our prayer life.
Anywhere, God is all around us, we need to just bask in his presence, E.g. be careful when driving
Talked about stimuli, different ways to pray – group feedback
Different stimuli and methods (different wedding dresses)
Prayer diary – journaling. Writing a page per day of thoughts about the world, use them as part of your prayers. Or write down your prayers, it might help you focus, knowing your prayers and able to check back and see what you have written.
Through worship – singing praises to God can be your prayers, I like to close my eyes in worship (if I’m not doing anything else), helps me focus on God and the words
If artistic then be artistic, etc – use your gifts in prayer, God gave us our gifts, we can use them in praise to him
Sitting by ourselves? If you don’t normally pray by yourself it is something you might want to try
Together in a group – alternatively if you don’t go to a prayer group and can’t make the church one you might find you want to meet with a couple of others here and have a prayer triplet, meeting for 20mins (ish) every week or fortnight to share prayers, and so you can help each other develop the prayers, alternatively you might want to go through what we discussed last week and ask those you are living with (if you live with others) if they would like to pray with you
Out loud – scary thing, use to make me feel sick and yet , nothing you can say is wrong because it is to God, others may be amused, confused or surprised but they might feel blessed by the words, it might also help them develop in prayer as well. Romans 8:26
Liturgy vs freestyle – some people prefer using set words and words from the bible, some prefer to just say things, both can be good to try. It tells us in the bible not to babble in prayers, liturgy or writing our prayers down might reduce that.
Prayer walk – again it’s understanding different stimuli, praying for the things you see every day, asking God to open your eyes to the need in your area, asking God to show you the area you live in or your church is in.
Use candles, music, water, images, lots of options
Group
Task – read through the papers in your group, use it to create a prayer wall, add comments, cuttings, etc
Pray for each person in small group
Homework:
Carry on your long term task
If you always pray in one particular way then try something new, e.g. praying little bits all day or just a long time in the morning, or try being artistic, etc
When praying don’t just take a list of requests, trying leaving them til last, focusing on praising God first
Start a prayer diary
Pray to close
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Prayer Training - Week 1
Prayer Training – Week 1 (16th September 2008)
Pray before we start as a group,
Introduction, prayer box for questions.
“God’s power is released in the lives of the people who pray!”
Group discussion,
Do we agree with this statement?
What do you value (or enjoy) about prayer?
What do you think you are missing from your prayer life?
What expectations do you have from this training?
What is prayer?
Relationship, a dialogue
§ The chance to develop intimacy and closeness with the father (John 15:5-8)
To be part of God’s great works, he challenges us through our prayer lives
God loves us and wants to meet with us (Acts17:26-27), he created us for that purpose
It’s the opportunity to align ourselves with God’s thinking, as we align ourselves we can see his work and understand Him and His works better
Short drama comparing the relationship with God to a relationship with a husband. This includes the time spent with a husband and how much time we spent with God and how the talking works.
Why should we pray? – any ideas?
To develop our relationship with God, all relationships depend on communication, that is how they grow – think of other relationships, John 15:15
Because God cares about us and wants to hear from us
Because we can go straight to our God, Ephesians 2:18
Helps us to release control, enables us to be vulnerable – Psalm 145:14
Because Jesus prayed - come to that later – and because we are Christians
To tell God our problems
For guidance
We can put our thoughts into words and it helps us to be listened to
Because it can change our life and the lives of those around us, he can heal us through prayer (God doesn’t always give us what we want, e.g. courage, he may give us more opportunities for e.g. courage)
It changes our viewpoint of those we see, touches us and challenges us, we can see the world as God sees it, develop compassion (e.g. the apostle John, at one point he wanted to destroy a whole city because some of its residents didn’t want Jesus to stay there, Luke 9:51-54 – after a lifetime in God’s presence, John wrote “whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”, 1 John 4:8
To do his work on earth we should know him
Because God answers prayers, we can see God working in our world, people become Christians
When we pray God will reward us (Matthew 6:6) – with appropriate rewards
It’s never a waste of time
To release God’s power
Because we can
By confessing our sins he forgives them, 1 John 1:9
Why do I need to pray if God knows everything about us?
Because of building the relationship
Because (as above) by confessing our sins, we can understand they have been forgiven, we are developing our selves (?)
Video clip – Bruce Almighty
Sometimes it is hard to know if God answers our prayer, sometimes we feel like we are ranting but through it all we can still be in conversation with God.
Group question
Have you ever experienced answered prayer? Any that particularly stand out for you?
Have you ever experienced unanswered prayer?
What affect did these experiences have on you and your relationship with God?
Unanswered Prayer (Richard)
The reasons there might be
Our actions stopping things from changing
God knowing the situation best
In hindsight the prayer would have been something else
Certain things we can’t change
We don’t always get what we want
Wrong motives
God’s will is different and we don’t always understand it
Free will
Sometimes we don’t know or understand and we won’t while on earth
People in the bible, e.g. Moses, Habbakuk, Paul
Just because he doesn’t answer does not mean he doesn’t care
Waiting (Richard)
It’s a Step of faith – based on what you have just heard prayer is a step of faith, we can call out to God and think he doesn’t hear us or we can ask a prayer and see problems still happening. Alternatively we can have our prayer answered where others tell us it is a coincidence. Prayer is understanding that we are not in control and trusting that God will do many things from it. We are committing parts of our lives to God and that is frightening. We hear about prayer being of faith in James 5, of Elijah praying that it would not rain and it didn’t for 3 and a half years, he then prayed and he prayed again and it rained.
Focus on Jesus in prayer – talk about it in groups and discuss what this tells us about Jesus and therefore what it tells us about our prayer lives
Matthew 6:5-8
When you pray (not if)
Go into your room and close the door
Father will reward you
Do not babble
Luke 9:28-36
§ Prayed with others
§ Prayed on a mountain
§ Amazing things happened, his clothes glowed (our clothes don’t tend to glow)
§ God spoke (revealed that “this is my son, whom I have chosen: listen to him”) – God told people to listen to Jesus
Matthew 26:36-45 – Jesus in Gethsemene
§ Asked for something to be taken away – unanswered prayer
§ But “yet not my will but yours” – recognising that God was in control, that it was God’s will he was looking to
§ “watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” – prayer can change us
§ giving all control to God
§ coming to God in pain, suffering and stress, he was in a desperate state
§ We can talk to God about ourselves, about our own pain
§ went off by himself
§ he prayed exactly the same thing 3 times, we can also pray things the same way, we don’t always have to think about different words
§ He spoke to the father
John 17:1-26
§ Praying to God
§ Prays for himself, disciples & all believers
§ Understanding the disciples will face things (doesn’t ask they will be taken out the world) but asks for them to be protected
§ Understands God is in control
§ Understands that we need to be taken care from the evil powers of the world (devil)
§ Glorified God
§ It seems the prayer isn’t answered but in fact he is in a deeper spiritual way
Mark 1:35, Luke 5:15-16, Luke 6:12-13, Hebrews 5:7
§ Jesus prayed in different places at different times of the day
§ Jesus withdrew to lonely places
§ Jesus prayed before important decisions (choosing disciples)
§ Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, we to can pray with emotions
§ After prayer Jesus acted, we should associate prayer with action
Homework:
Task for the weeks of training and beyond (story from walking on water book)
Focus on a particular thing that you want to pray for, something that maybe you haven’t prayed about before (maybe even someone). Pray about it every day for the weeks that training is on and until the week of the 24hour prayer and then see if anything has changed.
Rewrite a Psalm in your own words
Pray this everyday for the next 7 days “I pray that I (or we) being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Amen”
Pray for each person in small group – do this by writing down something about each person in the group and then thank God for it. Maybe you want to share your focus for homework or come up with your own way in your group.
Maybe from hearing about unanswered prayer, you have been convicted of something you know needs to change or a prayer you need to continue praying. Maybe you feel God isn’t listening, we can keep asking, being honest with how we feel (come to this next week). Renew this request, ask God to act and be honest.
Pray to close as a group
Pray before we start as a group,
Introduction, prayer box for questions.
“God’s power is released in the lives of the people who pray!”
Group discussion,
Do we agree with this statement?
What do you value (or enjoy) about prayer?
What do you think you are missing from your prayer life?
What expectations do you have from this training?
What is prayer?
Relationship, a dialogue
§ The chance to develop intimacy and closeness with the father (John 15:5-8)
To be part of God’s great works, he challenges us through our prayer lives
God loves us and wants to meet with us (Acts17:26-27), he created us for that purpose
It’s the opportunity to align ourselves with God’s thinking, as we align ourselves we can see his work and understand Him and His works better
Short drama comparing the relationship with God to a relationship with a husband. This includes the time spent with a husband and how much time we spent with God and how the talking works.
Why should we pray? – any ideas?
To develop our relationship with God, all relationships depend on communication, that is how they grow – think of other relationships, John 15:15
Because God cares about us and wants to hear from us
Because we can go straight to our God, Ephesians 2:18
Helps us to release control, enables us to be vulnerable – Psalm 145:14
Because Jesus prayed - come to that later – and because we are Christians
To tell God our problems
For guidance
We can put our thoughts into words and it helps us to be listened to
Because it can change our life and the lives of those around us, he can heal us through prayer (God doesn’t always give us what we want, e.g. courage, he may give us more opportunities for e.g. courage)
It changes our viewpoint of those we see, touches us and challenges us, we can see the world as God sees it, develop compassion (e.g. the apostle John, at one point he wanted to destroy a whole city because some of its residents didn’t want Jesus to stay there, Luke 9:51-54 – after a lifetime in God’s presence, John wrote “whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”, 1 John 4:8
To do his work on earth we should know him
Because God answers prayers, we can see God working in our world, people become Christians
When we pray God will reward us (Matthew 6:6) – with appropriate rewards
It’s never a waste of time
To release God’s power
Because we can
By confessing our sins he forgives them, 1 John 1:9
Why do I need to pray if God knows everything about us?
Because of building the relationship
Because (as above) by confessing our sins, we can understand they have been forgiven, we are developing our selves (?)
Video clip – Bruce Almighty
Sometimes it is hard to know if God answers our prayer, sometimes we feel like we are ranting but through it all we can still be in conversation with God.
Group question
Have you ever experienced answered prayer? Any that particularly stand out for you?
Have you ever experienced unanswered prayer?
What affect did these experiences have on you and your relationship with God?
Unanswered Prayer (Richard)
The reasons there might be
Our actions stopping things from changing
God knowing the situation best
In hindsight the prayer would have been something else
Certain things we can’t change
We don’t always get what we want
Wrong motives
God’s will is different and we don’t always understand it
Free will
Sometimes we don’t know or understand and we won’t while on earth
People in the bible, e.g. Moses, Habbakuk, Paul
Just because he doesn’t answer does not mean he doesn’t care
Waiting (Richard)
It’s a Step of faith – based on what you have just heard prayer is a step of faith, we can call out to God and think he doesn’t hear us or we can ask a prayer and see problems still happening. Alternatively we can have our prayer answered where others tell us it is a coincidence. Prayer is understanding that we are not in control and trusting that God will do many things from it. We are committing parts of our lives to God and that is frightening. We hear about prayer being of faith in James 5, of Elijah praying that it would not rain and it didn’t for 3 and a half years, he then prayed and he prayed again and it rained.
Focus on Jesus in prayer – talk about it in groups and discuss what this tells us about Jesus and therefore what it tells us about our prayer lives
Matthew 6:5-8
When you pray (not if)
Go into your room and close the door
Father will reward you
Do not babble
Luke 9:28-36
§ Prayed with others
§ Prayed on a mountain
§ Amazing things happened, his clothes glowed (our clothes don’t tend to glow)
§ God spoke (revealed that “this is my son, whom I have chosen: listen to him”) – God told people to listen to Jesus
Matthew 26:36-45 – Jesus in Gethsemene
§ Asked for something to be taken away – unanswered prayer
§ But “yet not my will but yours” – recognising that God was in control, that it was God’s will he was looking to
§ “watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” – prayer can change us
§ giving all control to God
§ coming to God in pain, suffering and stress, he was in a desperate state
§ We can talk to God about ourselves, about our own pain
§ went off by himself
§ he prayed exactly the same thing 3 times, we can also pray things the same way, we don’t always have to think about different words
§ He spoke to the father
John 17:1-26
§ Praying to God
§ Prays for himself, disciples & all believers
§ Understanding the disciples will face things (doesn’t ask they will be taken out the world) but asks for them to be protected
§ Understands God is in control
§ Understands that we need to be taken care from the evil powers of the world (devil)
§ Glorified God
§ It seems the prayer isn’t answered but in fact he is in a deeper spiritual way
Mark 1:35, Luke 5:15-16, Luke 6:12-13, Hebrews 5:7
§ Jesus prayed in different places at different times of the day
§ Jesus withdrew to lonely places
§ Jesus prayed before important decisions (choosing disciples)
§ Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, we to can pray with emotions
§ After prayer Jesus acted, we should associate prayer with action
Homework:
Task for the weeks of training and beyond (story from walking on water book)
Focus on a particular thing that you want to pray for, something that maybe you haven’t prayed about before (maybe even someone). Pray about it every day for the weeks that training is on and until the week of the 24hour prayer and then see if anything has changed.
Rewrite a Psalm in your own words
Pray this everyday for the next 7 days “I pray that I (or we) being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Amen”
Pray for each person in small group – do this by writing down something about each person in the group and then thank God for it. Maybe you want to share your focus for homework or come up with your own way in your group.
Maybe from hearing about unanswered prayer, you have been convicted of something you know needs to change or a prayer you need to continue praying. Maybe you feel God isn’t listening, we can keep asking, being honest with how we feel (come to this next week). Renew this request, ask God to act and be honest.
Pray to close as a group
Introducing Prayer Training at Highbbury
Becky Hartwell, our Pastoral Assistant, writes ...
I want to focus a little on prayer.
September and the beginning of October will be a focus on prayer for the church. There will be prayer training, there will be talks on Sunday mornings about prayer and there will even be a 24 hour prayer event. Some of you might wonder why I have been so keen on getting involved in prayer at Highbury.
I have been very fortunate to have people praying for me since before I was born and there are times when I feel my survival has been because of this. Prayer can transform people, areas and churches. Speaking to God is a frightening thought when we realise that’s what prayer is. But it doesn’t have to be daunting and intimidating because God is waiting to hear from us.
God has given us such an amazing gift of being able to talk to him at any time and in any place. We can talk to those around us every day but never truly talk of our struggles or pain but with God we can reveal our innermost secrets. He loves us and longs to hear us speak to Him. And sometimes we can sit with God and not say a word and He still understands our pain. We can talk for hours about our day or bring our happiest moments and He listens. Prayer is difficult, it can be challenging to communicate with someone whom you may not hear a reply and is not sitting in front of you. So it is good to meet together and to discuss ways to develop this part of our relationship with God.
The aim of the Prayer Training is to encourage us all in our prayer lives, to open us up to a relationship with God through prayer. It is for everyone, from those who have been praying for years to those who are only just learning how to.
The training will be on three Tuesdays in September: 16th, 23rd and 30th, starting at 8.00pm and finishing by 9.30pm. If you can only attend one or two then please come to those. There will be notes available for people to take home from the course or to pick up in the following weeks.
Let us get excited about prayer, about what God can do with our prayers. Let us pray for the prayer training and all that will happen in the Autumn term.
Phillipians 4 v 6 - Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God.
I want to focus a little on prayer.
September and the beginning of October will be a focus on prayer for the church. There will be prayer training, there will be talks on Sunday mornings about prayer and there will even be a 24 hour prayer event. Some of you might wonder why I have been so keen on getting involved in prayer at Highbury.
I have been very fortunate to have people praying for me since before I was born and there are times when I feel my survival has been because of this. Prayer can transform people, areas and churches. Speaking to God is a frightening thought when we realise that’s what prayer is. But it doesn’t have to be daunting and intimidating because God is waiting to hear from us.
God has given us such an amazing gift of being able to talk to him at any time and in any place. We can talk to those around us every day but never truly talk of our struggles or pain but with God we can reveal our innermost secrets. He loves us and longs to hear us speak to Him. And sometimes we can sit with God and not say a word and He still understands our pain. We can talk for hours about our day or bring our happiest moments and He listens. Prayer is difficult, it can be challenging to communicate with someone whom you may not hear a reply and is not sitting in front of you. So it is good to meet together and to discuss ways to develop this part of our relationship with God.
The aim of the Prayer Training is to encourage us all in our prayer lives, to open us up to a relationship with God through prayer. It is for everyone, from those who have been praying for years to those who are only just learning how to.
The training will be on three Tuesdays in September: 16th, 23rd and 30th, starting at 8.00pm and finishing by 9.30pm. If you can only attend one or two then please come to those. There will be notes available for people to take home from the course or to pick up in the following weeks.
Let us get excited about prayer, about what God can do with our prayers. Let us pray for the prayer training and all that will happen in the Autumn term.
Phillipians 4 v 6 - Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God.
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