Prayer, Let's Get Practical | John 16:20-28
/Scripture: John 16:20-28
Key Takeaways:
Prayer is a Privilege secured for us by Jesus.
“God is radically committed to my life of prayer. He shed the blood of His Son so that I might be cleansed and rendered fit to stand before Him in love. He also permitted the brutal rending of His Son so that I might now have a way to enter into the Holy Place through the torn flesh of Jesus. ‘Draw near,’ he says… How can I not feel the infinite sincerity of these invitations, especially when considering the painful lengths that God endured so that I might enter his presence in prayer. Indeed the Gospel serves as the sweetest of invitation to pray.” - Milton Vincent.
Prayer is Adoring and Asking.
True Prayer Prioritizes the Priorities of God.
Prayer is an attitude and a habit.
“It’s good to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false and deluding ideas which tell you, ‘Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that.’ Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer.” – Martin Luther
“Admit no exception in the prayer schedule, for the exception will break down the habit. The habit is the important thing.” - E. Stanley Jones.
Context for this Week’s Passage
This weekend we held 48 Hours of Prayer, a weekend designed to devote ourselves to pray and ask Him to move in our lives, our church, and our community. God moves when we pray, He just asks that we would humble ourselves before Him and lean on His power. This is an area of our relationship with God that we can all grow in. Pastor JR spent some time this Sunday reminding us of why we pray and how we can grow in our prayer. Spend some time discussing the questions below as a group and end with a time of prayer.
Discussion
• What is spiritual hunger? What gets in the way of our hunger?
• What preconceived thoughts about God do you often bring to prayer? How can you correct those thoughts?
• What is the difference between prayer as duty and prayer as privilege?
• How does adoring God increase your faith?
• What are the benefits of scheduling prayer? Do you have a scheduled time for prayer?
Apply
Pray as a group by beginning in Jesus name. Practice adoring, sharing out loud the the ways you want to praise God. Then ask. Try asking God specifically to increase your prayer lives individually and as a group. Then share some requests that you need God to answer.
Prayer
Pray through John 16:20-28. Think back on the truths of John 16:20-28 and pray. During prayer, allow time for members to speak out loud portions of this text that weighs on them and then pray what comes to mind.
“So basically what you are doing is taking the words that originated in the heart and mind of God and circulating them through your heart and mind back to God. By this means his words become the wings of your prayers. ”