Learning (Again) to Pray (1) – Our Father

Welcome to CROLCC, so glad you are here with us! We are the in the midst of our 40 Day Fast and Prayer chain and I want to say thank you for participating and praying. If you have not yet participated, I hope you would join us, even if you have never done it before, even if you don’t really know what you are doing, I want to encourage you to try it. You will never fully understand why we need to fast until you have tried it yourself. Last week I gave a general guideline about how to fast and when to fast, if you missed it, come talk to me or people that have done it before if you need more guidance. It’s actually pretty simple, just pick a meal and instead of eating, you pray! If you don’t know what to pray for, read the prayer list that we passed out.

But how do you really pray? So often we hear people tell us that prayer is just talking to God. Is it really? Then how come some people seems to really get it, while others don’t really know what to say? Maybe prayer is more than just us “talking”; more than convincing God to give us what we want. Today I want to start a short series on prayer, for some of us it might be new and for others it might be learning and relearning prayer all over again. So let’s start with Jesus’ life-changing answer when his disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Moving Forward

Can you imagine what would happen in our families, churches, communities—the world—if Christians prayed until we could earnestly say, “your will be done”? As you pray this week, declare God’s greatness, surrender your will, and acknowledge your dependence.

Discussion Questions

1. Talk about a time when you experienced an answer to prayer.

2. Have you ever been impressed by the way someone prayed? What about the prayer did you like?

3. Read Matthew 6:5–6. What is the problem with praying publicly as described in these verses?

4. Respond to this statement: the purpose of prayer is to surrender your will, not to impose it on God.

5. Do you believe that prayer can change God’s mind? Why or why not?

6. What makes it hard to pray “Your will be done” with sincerity?