PRAY FOR A CHANGE (STUDIES BASED UPON OUR PREACHING SERIES AT COMMUNITY CHURCH PUTNEY)
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Introduction
Prayer
is a subject about which many of us would say that we are passionate, we know
it’s vitally important, but few would say that they are praying as we, or
Jesus, would want.
Jesus
as the perfect man was a man of prayer. He prayed a lot and taught on it; for
example, to press home persisting in prayer He said,
‘Then Jesus told his
disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up…’
(Luke 18:1-8)
Christians are ‘Disciples’; another term for this is
‘learner’. A disciple learns from a teacher and seeks to become like the
teacher. The first disciples, after Jesus’ death and resurrection were told to
wait to be empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). On the day of Pentecost the
promised Spirit came upon this embryonic church. Despite having such power,
they did not deviate from the pattern of Jesus: they devoted themselves to
praying together a lot (Acts 2:42).
The best things are often the hardest to attain. Great
things in life may, on the surface seem easy, but they are not! Prayer should
be easy, but it isn’t! We are invited to come to God freely, with confidence
that He loves us and hears us because our faith in Christ has cleansed us from
all sin; so surely it’s simply a matter of making some time each day to be with
the Father and seek Him to act in on our behalf – should be easy! So why do you
and I struggle to make it happen personally or with other brothers and sisters?
Learning
from Paul
During this series we will be learning to pray by
studying the prayers of Paul. I trust and pray that God will teach us to pray
individually, in families and as a church.
God is calling us to a deeper devotion in prayer. Everyone’s
greatest need is that God to break in and act! As Lloyd Jones challenges us,
‘If you are really burdened by the times in
which we live, if you are really grieving in your heart as you see the
godlessness of the world, if you have a compassion in your hearts for men and
women in the bondage of sin and of Satan, your first duty is to pray for
revival.’
We
all want to see various things change! We can worry, moan, scheme, and post
things on social media; perhaps it’s time to Pray for a change!
WEEK 1 – PRAY FOR A CHANGE…
FAITHFULLY (23/4/17)
COMMUNITY
GROUP STUDY 1
Pray for a change... Faithfully
We live in an
age of the new, where we are encouraged to leave the old behind, that the new
is always better. We want our phones, computers, Internet speed to not just be
quick, they have to be super fast, and our lives can end up that way also!
Faithfulness is
a term that is falling out of use. Whether it’s in marriage, a job, a church, a
ministry area, and prayer, the order of the day seems to be, if it doesn’t
excite you, leave it behind.
Faithfulness is
crucial for any kind of success in life, and this is also true in the realm of
spiritual growth and praying with impact, so Paul says,
Be joyful in
hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)
Discuss/think/pray
about
Read
1 Thess. 1:2-3 & 2:13.
·
What
do these verses teach about the regularity and content of Paul’s prayers?
·
What is your current prayer
routine and how would you like to develop?
·
Writing a prayer list (see
page 7) is very helpful if one wants to be faithful in prayer. For the duration
of this 7-week series, we are encouraging everyone to write and use a prayer
list. Spend some time discussing your prayer list
·
During this series we are asking
you to commit to praying for at least 20 minutes every day. We learn to pray
according to God’s will by using scripture as a guide to our devotions. Praying
the scriptures is a vital skill to develop. In the following text notice the
regularity and content of Paul’s praying:
2 Thess. 1:11-12 ‘With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make
you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your
every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this so that the name
of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.’
·
Using Paul’s Prayer above as
a guide, what are the various things that one is to pray for?
Spend some time praying for Community Church, others that come to mind
and one another out of 2 Thess. 1:11-12
Going deeper (personal devotional) week 1 –
Pray for a change...
faithfully
Monday:
Praying faithfully is an act of love
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
Romans 12:9-13 Love must
be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above
yourselves. 11 Never be
lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in
affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share
with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
To
love is to do and want what is best for others even at your own expense. Surely
love for others will drive us to pray faithfully for them; to bring them and
their needs before our loving Father even at the cost of our time and missing
that TV show.
Now
pray for yourself and the church using Romans 12:9-13 as your guide.
Write a prayer list (see the bottom of this page). This is
very helpful if one wants to be faithful in prayer. For the duration of this
7-week series, we are encouraging everyone to write and use a prayer list.
Tuesday:
Consistency in prayer leads to a deep knowledge of God
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
Ephesians 1:15-17 …Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love for all God’s people, 16 I
have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Add to your prayer-list some
people that you would like to ‘keep asking’ that they would, by the Spirit,
‘know Him better’.
Wednesday:
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all
kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on
praying for all the Lord’s people.
To pray ‘in the Spirit’ is to
pray with an awareness of God’s powerful presence ‘in the room’. We are to do
this on ‘all occasions’. Let’s make it a habit of pray, not just in prayer
meetings etc. but through the day as people or circumstances come to mind.
Spend some time praying for ‘all
the Lord’s people’ as the Spirit brings them to mind, and people that you have
put on your list. If you haven’t done so already please add the eldership team
to your prayer list and pray for them regularly.
Thursday:
Devotion to prayer makes you a protector
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
Colossian 4:2-4 Devote
yourselves to prayer, being
watchful and thankful. 3 And
pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may
proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it
clearly, as I should.
To be ‘watchful’ means to be
‘awake’; this means 2 things: engage your mind when you pray; secondly, pray
for people whom you know or sense are going through trials.
Add to your prayer-list some
people whom you are concerned about.
Friday: Constantly
pray with dependence upon God’s grace
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
2 Thessalonians
1:11-12 With this in mind, we
constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling,
and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness
and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We
pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you
in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at the various things that Paul
‘constantly’ prays for them but notice how he ultimately trusts in the ‘grace
of God’ (God’s power). It is those who trust in God’s grace – His loving kindness
to act for the undeserving – who will pray faithfully for they know He always
hears and responds.
Now
pray for yourself and the church using this text as your guide. Be sure to
finish in thanking God for His grace in hearing your requests.
Saturday:
Consistency in prayer is born out of love
Begin by meditating (reading slowly, repeatedly,
with feeling) on this text:
1 Thessalonians 3:10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we
may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.
What does this text say about
Paul’s Christ-like love?
Pray for yourself and Community
Church that we would have such a heart.
WRITING A PRAYER LIST
We will never be faithful and consistent in prayer
if we just ‘go with the flow’. Using a tool like some kind of prayer list is
very helpful in our endeavour to ‘pray and never give up’.
Tools
In the past I have used a notebook with different
sections for different days and different topics. Over recent years I’ve moved
to using a computer-based list so that it can be easily updated and is more
secure.
Organise
Decide on a set of topics around which you can
organise your prayers and requests. Here are a few examples:
· Personal
· My Family
· My church (it's leaders,
growth etc.)
· Others (those who
have asked you to pray, those struggling)
· My witness (people whom you’d
like to see become a Christian)
· The nation and beyond (This
and other nations; those whom you know serving God overseas)
· Add scriptures, developments,
prophetic words, as you go along.
Use it every day
Tools need to be used. Let’s not be like those who
are excited by some new gadget that we see advertised only to leave it gathering
dust somewhere.
Let’s be spurred to action by Jesus’ promise for
those who “Ask, seek and knock”; they will “Receive, find and doors will open”.
Surely we all want that! Well, we can all have that!
This tool will help us to be like Paul who wrote,
‘We constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of
his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire
for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be
glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ.’ (2 Thess. 1:11-12)