Key Bible Passage(s):

Rom.8:26; Ps.17:1-6; James 5:19; I John 3:21-22

Tier 1:

How we live has significance. It affects relationship and therefore it affects communication. This is true in any relationship, and it is especially true in our relationship with God as it is expressed in prayer. If we reject, or even just decline to take on board Jesus’ teaching in, for example, the Sermon on the Mount, but then also try to cultivate our experience of what Jesus teaches in that sermon about prayer, we will end up with an impoverished and dysfunctional spirituality! Authentic prayer is offered in the context of a life that is characterised by a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Tier 2:

As we reflect on this spiritual dynamic it is important to distinguish between the presence of sin, and our reaction to that sin. We saw at the end of the module on the Apostles’ Creed that sin will continue to be part of our experience throughout our earthly pilgrimage. But do we cherish it and nurture it, protecting it from the work of the Spirit, or is the trajectory of our life shaped by our striving against sin and pursuit of Christ-likeness. There is a mutual correspondence - our prayer feeds our pursuit of holilness, and holiness feeds our pursuit of prayer.

Tier 3:

Our experience of prayer, and of God answering it or not, is a complex reality. The question of our pursuit of holiness is one aspect of that complexity. There are other dynamics at play, and reasons why our Father, in His wisdom may or may not answer prayer. But it is a part of the stroy and we need to engage with it early in our experience of discipleship if we are to avoid confusion and pain later in our lives as Christians.

…the one who expects God to do as he asks Him, must on his part DO WHATEVER GOD BIDS HIM. If we give a listening ear to all God’s commands to us, He will give a listening ear to all our petitions to Him. If, on the other hand, we turn a deaf ear to His precepts, He will be likely to turn a deaf ear to our prayers. Here we find the secret of much unanswered prayer. We are not listening to God’s Word, and therefore He is not listening to our petitions.

R.A. Torrey

Group Discussion Questions:

shorter discussion near beginning:

Where am I starting from with prayer?  How do I pray now?

Do you find prayer easy?  ...difficult?  Why?

Is your experience of prayer fulfilling?

Do you take part in the Church’s prayer meetings?  Why / Why not?  What do you make of them?

later in the session:

What do you think of the idea that our experience of prayer is linked in this way to our wider discipleship?

What other reasons might there be for God’s not hearing / answering prayer? 

Can you think of examples from the Bible where prayer is unanswered?

Why is prayer so neglected by the Church today?

towards the end of the session:

How can we know if we are cherishing sin?

What would you say to someone who dismissed these verses and believed that God would hear them no matter what?

How would you counsel someone who was afraid that because of sin in their life God wasn’t listening to their prayer?

But isn’t our relationship with our Father based on His grace to us in Christ?  Why does the question of ‘obedience’ feature at all?

Homework:

Over this half-term we have been working to memorise Matthew 6:5-15. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-16 whilst you do this.

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the next 3 years)

To Be A Christian: Read the introduction to Part III Belonging to Christ, including the Prayer for Spiritual Direction and Protection

Q&A 154-164

Proactive discipleship cycle:

Map out a week:

what will you be doing… who will you be meeting…

Pick out one or two specific events… (repeated / weekly)

Go through your list of commands distilled from Matthew’s Gospel.

which commands of Jesus of particular relevance… useful…? Pray / memorise / meditate – what does it look like to obey His commands in that moment..?

Why might it be difficult? Temptations?

What do I need to remember? What support do I need to be able to work this out? To do it?

How will this look different to times when I’ve been in that situation before?

Do I need to reflect / feedback / be accountable?