Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Each week throughout our series on The Lord’s Prayer, you can download resources to help you understand prayer and the power behind it.
The Lord’s Prayer - Week 1
The majority of us aren't very enthusiastic about prayer. We're ashamed of how rare we pray, and this causes us to feel horrible about ourselves. And when we do find the time to pray, we're either stumped for words or distracted by something else.
There is a belief that God is listening, whether it's through meditation or chanting; out loud or silently; in a corporate setting or alone; with an unshakeable belief that someone is listening or as a last-ditch effort to hopefully get something. Prayer is a universal language that is both ancient and modern at the same time.
Because Jesus was so close to God, his followers asked him to teach them how to pray. What did Christ do? He didn't give them a talk about prayer or a theology of it. Instead, he prayed.
Jesus prayed with them right then and there. As he did this, the disciples saw that Jesus' prayers were based on the reality that God loved him. We learn that prayer is about bringing what is in us to God, not what we think we should be.
This week, you are asked to make a promise to pray as you can, not as you think you should.
Discussion
How would you define prayer?
Do you think prayer is important? Why or why not?
What has your experience with prayer been like?
What could God be inviting you to in the area of prayer through this next season?
Practice
'Praying as you can,' at its foundation, simply means starting where you are - in whatever season, with whatever faith you have. Begin modest and achievable, rather than attempting to do too much. If you haven't been praying on a regular basis, it's not a good idea to begin by committing to pray for an hour daily. Commit yourself to beginning each day with a prayer.
Commit yourself to prayer for a single person. Commit to a nightly prayer session with your spouse or sibling. To pray properly, there is no such thing as a "correct" or "better" method.
As you consider what you feel God inviting you into for this series, we want you to keep in mind a few traits that can make a goal easier to meet.
The more tangible and simple things are, the better they are. We can do a lot with our own determination, but the Spirit is our greatest source of inspiration. By now, you at least have begun to formulate a few ideas of what it might look like for you to pray as you can in this season.
Work through the following prompts together to help each person decide what they want to commit to:
Who do you know, needs healing? Pray for healing.
Who do you know, that doesn’t follow Jesus? Pray for their salvation.
Who do you know, that could use encouragement? Pray for the Lord to speak to them,
Finally, whether or not you’re actually ready to commit to it, what could it look like for you to pray as you can?
Practice for the Week Ahead
The Practice for the week ahead is to begin to pray as you can. Take some time to develop a rhythm for whatever it is you committed to. If you wanted to pray for a particular person in your life each day, maybe write their name on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror. If you want to start your day with prayer, perhaps you put your Bible on top of your phone when you go to bed as a reminder. If you want to pray with your roommate or family, have a conversation with them to see if it’s something they are interested in and then make a plan. If you want to do midday prayer, block it out in your calendar each day.
Whatever it looks like, take a practical step towards your goal this week.
Close in Prayer
Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.
