No Reason Not To Pray | Luke | September 1st

by | Sep 1, 2024 | Digging Deeper

Series: Luke
Sermon Title: No Reason Not To Pray
Passage: Luke 11:1-13 NIV

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Series: Luke
Sermon Title: No Reason Not To Pray
Passage: Luke 11:1-13 NIV

Luke 11:1-13 NIV

Reasons we don’t pray…

  1. I don’t know how!
    Luke 11:1-4
    Matthew 6:9-13
  2. I don’t have time!
    Matthew 6:9-13
  3. I don’t care enough about others!
    Luke 11:5-6
  4. I didn’t get my desired answer the first time I asked!
    Luke 11:5-10
    Luke 18:1-8
  5. I am not sure if God really cares!
    Luke 11:11-13
    1 Peter 5:7

GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  • Have you felt self-conscious praying in groups thinking you were not “doing it right”?
  • Jesus gives us several elements that should be reflected in our prayer— His holy name, bringing His Kingdom, material need, forgiveness (us/them),and temptation.  Which ones are you drawn to and which ones get neglected?
  • How do you practice Paul’s injunction to pray without ceasing? How do you pray in a way that keeps you as conscious as possible of Christ’s presence within you?
  • Do you feel that being in the presence of God is not the same thing as prayer?
  • Persistence is always rewarded, but can a delay in response signal something else  (James 4:3)?  How can God use prayer to adjust our motives? 
  • How have you felt when something you prayed for earnestly did not appear to be answered?
  • What does Jesus’ parable about the persistent friend in Luke 11:5-10 teach us about persistence in prayer?
  • How do we balance praying with intimacy and praying with reverence?
  • Tim Keller says “God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows.”  How does this idea bring you comfort?
  • How does prayer release us from a desire to try to control everything in our lives?
  • Do you think that God can lead you into temptation? 
  • If we pray with persistence can we change God’s heart?

 

PERSONAL REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

  • Is praying your desire and love for God difficult?  What does this tell you about yourself and your view of God? 
  • What happens inside you when you are quiet with God?
  • God promises to give us the Holy Spirit when we ask in prayer. And we are taught that we can do nothing apart from being connected to Jesus. Are you ever tempted to try to live the Christian life in your own strength, or do you continually ask God to empower you by His Spirit?
  • What does the Lord’s Prayer teach us about how to pray, and how might this shape your personal prayer life?
  • Reflect on a time when you felt unsure about how to pray. How did you overcome this, or how might you approach it differently now?
  • How can we find time to pray in our busy schedules, and why is it essential to make prayer a priority?
  • Have you ever felt discouraged in prayer because you didn’t receive the answer you were looking for? How did that experience affect your faith?
  • How does believing in God as a loving Father who cares about our needs impact your approach to prayer?
  • Why do you think Jesus emphasizes asking, seeking, and knocking in Luke 11:9-10, and how can this shape your prayer life?
  • How can we grow in our confidence that God hears our prayers and cares about what we bring to Him?

 

SCRIPTURES TO MEDITATE ON:

 

RESOURCES:

MONTHLY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE TO TRY: PRAYER

“When it comes right down to it, there are really only two possible prayers that can be prayed. One is entirely natural, one is absolutely supernatural. Whether we choose to pray or not, one of these will be praying itself. The choice is not whether to pray. The choice is which prayer to pray. The prayer that comes most naturally for all of us is, “My name be hallowed, my kingdom come, my will be done.” This is a prayer of independence and willfulness. It is the liturgy of the kingdom of self. The prayer that goes against our nature and that can become our prayer only through the action of divine grace is the Lord’s Prayer. It inverts everything in the liturgy of the kingdom of the self—“thy name be hallowed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” It is a prayer of surrendered autonomy and willingness. It is the liturgy of the kingdom of God.”- David Benner, Desiring God’s Will.
The more time we spend in prayer the more we align our thoughts, will, and efforts with what God desires for us and his Kingdom here and now. This week  I want to introduce a foundation prayer process. This is not new to many people but for some, this is a new process of how to pray.

This week’s helpful outline for daily prayer is… A.C.T.S.
 Adoration – Adore who God is. Declare who he is to you and in your life.
Confession – Confess your need for Him. Confess any areas of sin or withholding
Thanksgiving – Give Thanks for what He has done each day. Look for him at work
Supplication – Him to supply what our needs are that day. See him as your source.

This week grab a journal, and set aside 10 minutes. Write the acronym vertically with lines between each letter to provide space for a written response. Take one minute to sit quietly, breathe in, and focus on a word or thought about God. Then embark on your prayer journey addressing each of these 4  types of pray.

 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

As I journey through my spiritual life, it has dawned on me the idea of prayer is so often misunderstood by many who follow Jesus. I know that was true in my life. Oh prayer on the surface is an easy concept to “get” but many people fail to move beyond the surface prayers of asking for blessings, prayer over meals, of asking for things or healings. However the more I have dug into topic of prayer, or better yet allowed the experience of prayer to influence my life; the more richly I begin to understand the necessity, the power, and the joy of prayer.

This is the lifeline of the christian life. We see it modeled by Jesus all throughout his ministry in the gospels, we are encouraged to do it but for some reason, many people are frozen in their experience of it. Moving beyond the interactive piece of prayer and the conversational idea, prayer is in essence aligning our hearts with the kingdom of God. At the beginning of the Lord’s prayer we read Jesus declared 2 key things. 1) Our Father – the idea that we are a community, not an individual and 2) …your kingdom come, It is the notion of surrendering our kingdom to His kingdom. We must recognize that it is through prayer that we experience the community, fellowship, and unity of our relationship with the Father. We are drawn into community with, and knowledge of Him through prayer. This is one of the reasons I believe so many people fail to move deeper into prayer experiences or practices. There is a subtle fear of the intimacy that can be reached. 

There is also an anxious concern about surrendering our kingdom’s desires to His Kingdom’s demands. The closer we connect with our king Jesus the more his kingdom must reign in our lives. So we surrender to fear and fail to draw near to him through prayer. This practice in many Christians leads to a powerless life where we stay in an academic understanding of prayer and relations, Kingdom and King. Psalm 34:8 instructs us to “taste and see the Lord is good.” It is the experience of the Lord that leads people to understand the goodness of God’s goodness. 

So I hope this week you move another notch forward in your prayer life. Wherever it is, God desires to move you closer to him through prayer.

Rob Hans | Spiritual Formation and Connections Pastor