Part One
Part 1
Can you remember your first exposure to prayer? Was it a group prayer? Was it quiet or out loud? Maybe people prayed in tongues, maybe you were not sure what to do with your hands, how to sit or what to say, or whether there were rules or guidelines around how to pray. Many of us have come to prayer with confusion or even frustration.
Rather than trying to “get a handle on” prayer, we need to allow prayer to “get a hold of” us. Prayer helps us experience relationship with God, changing the way we do life and live out our faith.
Jesus gives instructions to the disciples and models how they (and we) are to pray. His prayer is not just something to be memorised, rather, it gives us a model or a pattern for how to pray.
Engage with God’s Word
Consider [bible]Mark 14:32-42[/bible], [bible]Matthew 6:9-13[/bible] and [bible]Romans 16:1-16[/bible].
Discuss
- In this week’s scriptures how does Jesus describe the greatness of God? How would you describe who God is?
- Consider what “your will be done” (God’s will) means to you.
- When have you prayed for something and felt God’s will was different to yours? How did you work through that?
- In Australian society, we can forget to rely on God to meet our daily needs. We can, however, be reminded or impacted when our friends or family are in trouble, or a health crisis shakes us up. Discuss how God has reminded you to fully depend on Him.
Respond
Praying as Jesus teaches means we have a framework for our prayers. Jesus models a three step process which includes acknowledging God’s greatness, surrendering our will to His and acknowledging our dependence upon Him. In addition to the Bible passages above, are there other prayers in the Bible where you can see these three elements? Discuss these prayers with others and take turns praying each part of the prayer.