Why Pray?

Living Rock Church

Why Pray?

Session 01

Pete Greig

This first session of The Prayer Course, we’ll unpack the importance of prayer and the different topics covered across the course.

📖 Bible passages
Luke 11:1-4
Matthew 6:6-8 (MSG)
Romans 8:26-28

💬 Discussion Questions
Q. What did you find most helpful or most challenging in the video?
Q. What do you find difficult about prayer? What do you find easy? Why do you think prayer can often feel hard?

Pete says the best piece of advice is to “Keep it simple, keep it real and keep it up.”

Keep it simple: “your prayer life is at its best at its simplest”
Q. What do you mostly talk to God about?

Keep it real: “Don’t role-play before God”
Q. Do you feel like you have to act a certain way before God when you pray? Why or why not?

Keep it up: “Don’t give up praying too soon”
Q. Do you find it challenging to persevere in prayer? How can we be encouraged to keep going?

Adoration

Pete Greig

🔑 Key verse “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” – Matthew 6:9 📖 Bible passages Acts 4:24-31 ⭐️ Summary points • Start by recognising God is God. • Worship puts things back into perspective. • Use P.R.A.Y – Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield. 💬 Discussion Questions Q. What did you find most helpful or most challenging in the video? Q. Why do you think that we most often associate prayer with asking, rather than worship and adoration? “In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him” – http://c.s.lewis Q. Do you enjoy spending time with God? When are the times that prayer feels most enjoyable? Q. Pete says that prayer is primarily about relationship with God: “It’s relational, not transactional”. How does this change your perspective of coming to God in prayer? Q. In the Acts passage, the early church put their own crisis into perspective by worshipping. What are the practical things you could do this week to foster an attitude of worship in your daily routine? 🎯 Do it Practise thanksgiving and praise by reflecting on Psalm 8. As a group, read Psalm 8 out loud together. You might like to delegate different verses to different people, or encourage just one person to read it out. Then, take time to Pause and Rejoice: Pause: Take a moment in silence and invite the Holy Spirit to help you reflect on what you’ve just read. Rejoice: Encourage group members to speak out prayers of adoration. Invite everyone to reflect and to thank God for one or two things in their lives. They might like to use the Psalm as inspiration, too.

Petition

Pete Greig

📖 Bible passages Matthew 7:7-11, Matthew 18:19 ⭐️ Summary points • The Father loves to give good gifts. • Traffic lights: Yes, Wait, No. • Sometimes we need to “stack dominoes” and persevere in prayer Q. What did you find most helpful or most challenging in the video? “Although God knows our need, he does still want us to articulate it to him” Q. Poppy pointed out that it’s often easier to believe God can change things in our hearts rather than believing in things can see in the world. Do you agree? Q. How often do you ask God for what you want as well as what you need? Pete uses the traffic light analogy to describe different ways God responds to our prayers: Green: Yes Amber: Wait / Persevere Red: No Q. Are you experiencing a “green”, “amber” or “red” response to any specific prayers at the moment? Share your experiences together.

Intercession

Pete Greig

Key verse “Your kingdom come” – Matthew 6:10 Bible passages 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, Exodus 17:8-13, Genesis 18:22-33 Summary points When God’s people intercede, God intervenes. There is power in our free will. 4 steps of intercession: get informed, get inspired, get indignant, get in synch. Discussion Questions Q. What did you find most helpful or most challenging in the video? Q. How do you feel about intercessory prayer – do you find it’s something that comes naturally or is it more of a challenge? “Our free wills are powerful; they can release or restrict the purposes of God.” Q. How does this affect the way that we come to God in intercessory prayer? Q. Have you ever had a feeling that you needed to pray for something or someone? What happened? “Prayer isn’t about trying to get God to say amen to what I want; prayer is about me saying amen to God’s will for my life” Q. What would it look like for you to pray this week with this perspective?