Introduction and Ice Breaker
If God gave you everything you asked for in the last week, what would that look like?
Themes to Consider
We dream of a God who brings Heaven to Earth; God dreams of praying people to share Heaven with
PRAYER IS A COMPELLING WONDER
PRAYER IS ALSO A CONFOUNDING MYSTERY
PRAYER IS A PROFOUND INVITATION
Discussion Questions
When you hear stories of answered prayer, are you angered, perplexed, encouraged?
Do you wrestle with the question: do my prayers matter?
Do you find yourself in the paralyzing place between WONDER & MYSTERY?
How confident do you feel about:
Prayer as a way to meditate and let go?
Prayer as a centering exercise?
Prayer as a channel to be reformed from the inside out?
Prayer that has effect…that makes a miraculous marked difference?
What is God is longing to do, and he’s just waiting for you to take responsibility?
Guided Prayer
Silence / Remove distractions as much as you can and spend two minutes (time it, if helpful) in silence, noticing your body, your emotions and thoughts. Perhaps use a simple phrase to pray silently so that you stay focused.
Meditate on this text: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14)
Adoration / God is present and invites your nearness. Spend time in awe of the access you have to the Creator.
Confession / Confess to God where you treat prayer like duty, like less than being present with him and restoration of our created nature. Confess where you have been skeptical of God’s acting, and of change-making prayer.
Thanksgiving / Thank you, God, that you have invited us to be friends. You invite us to participate in your kingdom rule, even though we aren’t deserving. Thank you for your grace in giving us what we don’t deserve and your mercy, not giving us what we do deserve.
Supplication / “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Pray this for your life, your family, your workplace, your neighbors, your community.
Silence / End with two minutes of silence meditating on this text: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
Supplemental Content
According to Gallup research, this week, more Americans will pray than will exercise, drive a car, have sex, or go to work. 9/10 Americans pray regularly; 3/4 pray every day.
Biblically, intercede means to go-between; to pass between two parties, to mediate. In layman’s terms, intercessory prayer means to pray for someone else
quotes
PRAYER is the pathway He’s made to get us back to GOD’S ORIGINAL PLAN.
PRAYER is the way we can RULE…MANAGE…INTERCEDE in this world.
PRAYER is the repair of the communication breech that paralyzes us.
“God doesn’t need INTERCESSORS managing His Creation. But, God chooses INTERCESSORS. That’s how committed He is to sharing redemption with you. Except in the most extraordinary cases, God has limited Himself and His mission on the earth to the management of imperfect, ordinary people like you and me.”
If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others. Intercessory prayer is selfless prayer, even self-giving prayer. In the ongoing work of the Kingdom of God, nothing is more important than intercessory prayer.
Richard Foster
Jesus, on the subject of prayer:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11)
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11)
“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14)
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15)
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21)
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7)
Of all the means God could have used, prayer seems the weakest, slipperiest, and easiest to ignore. So it is, unless Jesus was right in that most baffling claim. He went away for our sakes, as a form of power sharing, to invite us into direct communion with God and to give us a crucial role in the struggle against the forces of evil.
Philip Yancey
To pray in Jesus’ name…means that we enter into Jesus’ status in God’s favor, and invoke Jesus’ standing with God.
Larry Hurtado
To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.
Karl Barth
