welcome
Go around the room and give people one minute to say ‘what was the last prayer God answered for you?’
worship
Spend this session focusing on the Lord’s Prayer. Stand together. Read it out, a line at a time, stopping after each line and letting the group pray into it: e.g., ‘Our father in heaven’- pray into God being our father, thanking him for making us his children. Do the same for each line, being as creative as possible in opening up the theme or content of the prayer.
word
What is Prayer? Ask people to call out something that characterises prayer for them or a way of praying that they have experience of. Here are some ideas for the person leading the word section to read out to the group if things go slowly and to help make a resume at the end.
- Communication (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18) - simply talking to God about everyday things, at any time, in any place and being ready to hear what God is saying to us.
- Worship - Recognising the worth and value of God. Expressing our love, thanks and adoration to him.
- Friendship (John 10:27, Matthew 7:7-11) - Best friends talk, share their problems and are there for each other. We talk to God and share our concerns with him and he talks to us and lets us know his concerns for our lives and the society around us.
- Intercession (1 Timothy 2:1) - Where God shares his burdens with us and we respond by crying out to God for breakthrough on behalf of a person or situation. Intercession draws us into God’s heart for justice and righteousness. Spiritual warfare is a part of this.
- Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:4, Romans 8:26) - speaking in tongues edifies us and helps us to pray when we are not sure what or how we are supposed to pray.
- Fasting (Matthew 6:16) - Abstaining from food or TV in order to focus on our friendship with God. Fasting adds an extra impetus and dynamic to our prayers.
- Lifestyle (Hebrews 13:15-16) - Prayer is more than words – it involves our actions and means that we have to live out God’s values and not just talk about them.
think
Ask the group to think for a moment which of the above are their preferred or most common way of praying. Ask the group to reflect on which of these areas they would like their prayer life to develop in?
Share with the group and encourage people to be accountable in developing the weaker/newer areas they would like mature in.
Further discussion which may be helpful to your group is outlined below.
Prayer is something that many of us struggle with. Use some of the questions below to open up the discussion and to create an open atmosphere:
- Why at times does prayer seem like such a struggle?
- How can we bring prayer more into our lifestyle?
- Where does our motivation for prayer come from?
You can use this discussion at the start of this section and leave it open-ended. If however, you use it after people have shared about their prayer life and goals, don’t let it be too open-ended – get people to be specific and accountable.
witness
Goal setting and reviewing is vital if we are to pray for our mates and see breakthrough. You will need to decide which of the two following outlines to use here depending on where your group is at right now.
outline A…
if individuals have not identified 2 or 3 unsaved mates which the group is aware of and joins in praying for:
You will need enough sheets of paper for everyone in the group to have one. Pass them around and give people 5 minutes to think of three people they have regular contact with who are unsaved, unchurched or backslidden. Ask them to divide the paper into 3 columns. Everyone writes the name of the person and a couple of details to give a bit of background info [i.e. are they a housemate, coursemate, how old, current view of God or church]
In the middle column, everyone writes down one prayer they would pray which would bless the person in a way that would show that God is real and interested in their daily life. [Success on course, enough money to live on, sleep well at night if they aren’t sleeping]
In the third column write down one thing which you believe needs to change for this person to get saved. It could be a bad experience of church, seeing God as hard and unfair or complacency.
outline B…
if you have identified and have been praying into a group of mates for a while as outlined above:
Use this time to review. Get people to say who they have been praying for. What has changed in that situation? Get people to share ways in which the group has also helped to ‘own’ this person. Finish off by standing together and praying for the list of unsaved mates that the group is taking responsibility for praying for.
