Week 1 | Pray Like This | Introduction
Prayer is probably the most powerful spiritual discipline for our lives. 94% of people in North America pray, and yet most people have challenges praying. If God already knows everything then why pray? And what difference does prayer even make? As a result many turn to prayer as a last resort.
It’s normal to feel that way. Even Jesus’ disciples struggled with prayer. They saw how Jesus prayed and recognized just how powerful and revolutionary it was. So they turned to him and asked him to teach them how to pray. He didn’t tell them they had to go to seminary, he said “sure, I can teach you.”
Jesus gave them a model of the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11 and in Matthew 6. The Matthew teaching includes warnings about how NOT to pray: to not do so for public approval, thinking that God will hear you because of your fancy or abundant words. Instead, in private, pray to your Father.
The Lord’s prayer is not meant to be a mantra, it’s meant to be a model for us to pray as Jesus did.
SUMMARY
TALK IT OUT
- What are some common misconceptions or struggles people have with prayer? Have you personally experienced any of these struggles?
- On a scale of 1(low)-10(high), how would you rate your prayer life? What are the obstacles that get in the way?
- Consider this quote from Corrie Ten Boom: “For most of us, prayer is more like a spare tire than the steering wheel”. Why do you think this is true?
- Read Luke 5:16 and 6:12. What do you think the disciples experienced that made them ask Jesus how to pray? How did Jesus’ expression of prayer differ from yours?
- Consider the statement: “Prayer is something that can be taught and learned. Which means this— that it is possible to do this right and that it is possible to do this wrong.” Read Matthew 6:5-8. What are some ways we can do it wrong? How do these things practically manifest themselves in our context today?
- Jesus teaches his disciples a specific model of prayer, known as the Lord’s Prayer. How does this model differ from the ways prayer is commonly approached today? What significance do you see in the structure and content of the Lord’s Prayer?
- Spend time as a group praying through the Lord’s prayer. This is not to be as a mantra. But use the outline Jesus provided to speak to God as father.