Prayer: Leader's Guide

HABIT 1 - PRAYER

LEADERS’ GUIDE

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Session 1
Study Guide

Session Objectives:

Begin developing positive relationships within your small group
Encourage and motivate participants to practice daily prayer
Enrich participants’ prayer lives, so that they begin to experience what it means to "pray without ceasing"

For Your Information:

A) Psalm attitudes - Keep in mind that positive expressions in the psalms reflect the response to an opposite emotion.

Psalm 6.1-7 speaks of languishing, terror, weariness, grief, weakness.
Psalm 8 reflects awe of and gratitude towards God.
Psalm 9.1-2 reflects thankfulness, gladness, praise
Psalm 13 begins with questioning, pain, and sorrow. It ends with trust, rejoicing, and singing.
Psalm 22.1-2 reflects a sense of abandonment and isolation.
Psalm 23 expresses trust and confidence in God.
Psalm 38.1-4 speaks of being rebuked and chastened, of being sick, and burdened by sins.
Psalm 44.15-16 reflects the feelings of being disgraced, shamed, taunted, and reviled.
Psalm 56.1-5 reflects fear (v. 3), yet the person expresses trust in God.

The point here is that the psalms give voice to the whole range of human emotions. No matter what we are feeling, the Psalms give us words and encouragement to bring it to God in prayer. The Psalms are somewhat unique in the Bible, therefore, because, whereas most of Scripture speaks to us, the Psalms speak for us.

B) New Testament examples:

Matthew 5.43-45: Here Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us. This is not an easy thing to do, but I think that Jesus gives this command mostly for our own sake. When we are hateful and angry, we are the ones who get hurt. In praying for our enemies, we are made better.
Matthew 6.5-8: Personal prayer is a relationship with God, not a show for others to see. In our relationship with God, we are encouraged to speak plainly and directly from our heart. Even when you have trouble putting your thoughts into words, you can be confident that "your Father knows what you need before you ask him.."
Mark 11.23-24: "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." There are two things needful if we are to experience the truth of this saying. 1) Believing Jesus’ promise, and thus recognizing that our faith always needs strengthening, and 2) Having our will in line with God’s will, and thus recognizing that our prayers will always be answered when we pray for God’s will to be done
Mark 14.32-38: What Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, he here puts into practice himself. Jesus acknowledges God’s power, prays simply and directly the concerns of his heart, submits his will to God’s will, and recognizes human weakness and the trials we experience while praying for our strengthening.
Luke 11.5-13: Jesus encourages persistence in prayer. We are also encouraged by the assurance of God’s love for us in giving us what is best for us.
Luke 18.1-8: The point of this parable is expressed in v. 1. We are taught about our "need to pray always and not to lose heart."
Romans 8.26-28: This passage is a great encouragement for those times when we are not sure how to pray or what exactly we should be praying for. Keep this passage in mind when praying with or for someone who has had a stroke or is in a coma. V. 28 is a reminder that God’s good will always be accomplished. This good may not always appear immediately to be good for me, but by faith, I trust that it is ultimately the highest good.
2 Corinthians 12.6-9: This is an example of "unanswered prayer," though we really cannot call it that. Paul did not get what he prayed for, but he discovered something even better through the way in which God answered his prayer.
Philippians 4.6-7: The NRSV speaks of "prayer and supplication." (Your translation may differ.) The first term is the usual term for prayer. The second reflects a somewhat more urgent request that is not formally designated as prayer but does have the same intent and effect. Note the direction to accompany all such prayers with thanksgiving. We also learn that we need not worry, because our relationship with God expressed in our prayers will always reflect God’s peace.
James 5.16: "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective."

C) Lord’s Prayer:

Note that the Lord’s Prayer is a community prayer. It uses "our," "us,"… not "my," "me,"… Especially keep this in mind when praying for our daily bread. The prayer is not just about me getting fed but about all of us getting fed. It is a similar matter when we talk about the forgiveness of our sins.
Note that the prayer starts with God and God’s name being hallowed, God’s kingdom coming, God’s will being done. Only after acknowledging the priority of God do we begin to pray about our concerns.
The Lord’s Prayer is distinctive for its use of ordinary and personal language. It is the phrasing of a child speaking to a parent. The prayer reinforces the closeness and personal-ness of our relationship with God.
If you stop to think about it, in this prayer we are quite bold in telling God what God should be doing! The reason we can do this, though, is that the things for which God would have us pray are the very things God wants to do for us.
The Lord’s Prayer is both a model of prayer and a model for life.
For a fuller study of the Lord's Prayer, see my 5 part study on it available from the CrossMarks Christian Resources site.

For Discussion:

Prayer is an attitude and a way of being in relationship with God. When our whole life is in harmony with God, then, in all that we say or do or think, we are praying without ceasing.
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… Folding hands and closing eyes are simply one way of trying to keep from being distracted while we pray. While kneeling is mentioned as a posture for prayer which indicates a humility before God (1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chr. 6:13; Ps. 95:6; Isa. 45:23; Luke 22:41; Acts 7:60; 9:40; Eph. 3:14, etc.), the Bible also describes praying while bowing and falling prostrate (Gen. 24:26, 52; Ex. 4:31; 12:27; Matt. 26:39; Mark 14:35, etc.); spreading out the hands (1 Kings 8:22, 38, 54; Ps. 28:2; 63:4; 88:9; 1 Tim. 2:8, etc.); and standing (1 Sam. 1:26; 1 Kings 8:14, 55; 2 Chr. 20:9; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11, 13).
Certainly you won’t pray for any evil or things that arise out of evil motives. But do you pray for your favorite team to win? That you will get a green light when you are in a hurry? On the other hand, Paul did write in Philippians 4.6, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
The Bible does speak clearly that prayer can truly change things. God hears our cries and resolves to help us. More importantly, though, as Søren Kierkegaard once said, "Prayer does not change God but changes the one who prays." To put it another way, when we pray, it is not a matter of telling God what to do, but asking God to tell us what to do.
When we pray for others, we are, of course, again praying for them in accordance with that will of God with which we have aligned our own hearts. But in praying for others, it is not only a matter of our faith or fervor. It is also a matter of our compassion and empathy. We cannot pray for others unless we in love are truly praying with them.
What we find in the Bible is that when Jesus and other early Christians prayed for others, they always did so in full confidence that it would happen. We may indeed have occasion to pray for guidance and desire to know God’s will, but the deeper issue here is one of attuning ourselves to God’s will. "Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession." (Foster, Celebration, 39) Once God’s will becomes our will, we can pray for everything in full confidence of being answered.
We can always pray that God’s will be done. In doing so, we can be confident that the best and highest good will be accomplished. We can also remember the promise of Romans 8.26: "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."
God always answers our prayers, it’s just that sometimes the answer is "Yes," sometimes "No," and sometimes "Later." Again, when our will is brought into harmony with God’s will, all our prayers will be answered in the best way. See the comments on 2 Corinthians 12.6-9 above for another way of looking at this issue. While these are all ways of trying to explain for someone why their prayers do not seem to be answered, such explanations are not appropriate, caring responses to someone who is asking the question in a difficult situation. At such a time, a better response might be to listen for the person’s deeper question and find ways of assuring that God is indeed present with them.

For Practice:

Note to leaders: Try to use the last 15-20 minutes to do one or two of the exercises. The first exercise is fairly easy to try. Compared to the third exercise, the second is a bit less ‘threatening’ for people new to a group, but the third does offer a way for the group to get to know each other better and pray for each other. So, look over each exercise and decide which would work better for your group. The strips of paper needed for the third exercise will be available for you to pick up with this Leaders’ Guide.

Exercise 1: This is self-explanatory. You will need to judge the amount of time you give for each part. As the leader, begin the prayer with something like, "Lord, we turn over to you the concerns of our heart." After a time of silence, say, "Lord, we turn our hands and our hearts to receive from you all that we need." After a time of silence, say, "Lord, we put our hands together and pray that you would speak to us." You might close with, "Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all things. Amen."
Exercise 2: The point of this exercise is for people to start seeing that everything in our world and daily life can and should be the subject for prayer. Read the newspaper as the source of prayer inspiration for others, not just news about others. It’s another way to remember to pray without ceasing. Make sure that someone in each group has planned to take responsibility for each of the petitions. When you as the leader start the prayer, you may wish to use something like this: "Lord, we bring before you the concerns of this world…" (petitions) We bring before you the concerns of our nation…" (petitions) etc.
Exercise 3: The point of this exercise is to learn more about someone else in order to be better able to pray for them. You may, partly for time’s sake and also to make the exercise less threatening, tell people to choose just 3 or 4 of the strips that they are willing to share with someone else. When you as the leader start the prayer, you may wish to use something like this: "Lord, we bring before you the concerns of NAME’s heart…" (petitions) etc.

A good way to end each of your small group sessions is with everyone praying the Lord’s Prayer together. TLbwy!