Practicing Prayer | Week 1
Opening
Give everyone the opportunity to share how their experience was in the service on Sunday. Were they familiar with that type of prayer? Did they pray with anyone else?
Overview
Praying together in the Spirit allows God’s Spirit to align every believer’s heart to who He is, what He is doing, and how we may join Him together. Though we cannot know all that God knows, God’s Spirit guides us toward what we can and should know so we can think, feel, and act into God’s will. Prayer allows us to know God and to accomplish things that we could not by our own effort, organization, or skill.
We often don’t pray continually and powerfully because we believe that God has already decided, or we feel unqualified, or we are uncomfortable. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 gives us gives us a guide to pray continually and powerfully. It tells us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.
Discussion Questions
- How would you describe your prayer life?
- What is one next step you can make in your prayer life?
Practice
Ephesians 6 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
1 Thessalonians 5 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Take turns praying together after reading those verses aloud. You could take turns expressing gratitude (being thankful), rejoicing in the Lord (naming true things about God and worshiping) and praying in the Spirit (letting the Spirit prompt you in your requests. Or you can use the prompts from Sunday where you pray about deepening the body, developing new leaders, deploying the called, and diminishing the debt (the four pillars of Deep and Wide).
Closing
Invite each person to name a small practice of prayer that they want to implement daily this week.