Key Bible Passage(s):

ILk.22:39-46; Rom.12:1-2; James 4:3

Tier 1:

A lot of our experience of prayer (including before we became Christians) is ‘self-taught’, and there can be bad habits that need to be unlearned. Jesus is teaching us a model of prayer that often cuts across our ‘natural’ instincts. We’ve seen how this prayer leads us through a kind of ‘death to self’. That comes to a climax in this clause: Your will be done. This can often be different from our will. Prayer is not trying to get God to do what we want. Indeed, it is the relinquishing our perceived right to self-determination.

Tier 2:

Prayer can often be driven by a latent pride. I can come to prayer assuming I have the insight to know what needs to be prayed for, and how it should be prayed about. Prayer is not us getting God involved in our lives, in what we are doing. It is much more about God getting us involved in His life, in what He is doing. In learning to pray for His will to be done, we are learning to be like Jesus, who embodied this prayer in incredibly deep ways.

Tier 3:

The expereince of ‘unanswered prayer’ is complex, but can often have its roots in what we are thinking about in this session. James (4:3) warns us that when we ask for things in prayer with the wrong motives (i.e. according to our will) God will not answer. We can often think that sincerity is the key to effective prayer. Actually, it doesn’t matter how sincere we are if we are praying for the wrong things and with the wrong motives. Effective prayer is rooted in our being in step with Jesus’ priorities and concerns.

I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.

Elisabeth Elliot

Group Discussion:

Read Is.46:10; Ps.115:3; Eph.1:11.

Are there any situations in which God’s will is not done? 

If you think God’s will is always done, why pray this prayer? 

What do you think Jesus is teaching us to pray for?

How can we know His will for ‘on earth’?  Have you ever struggled to know what God’s will is?  How have you resolved that?

later in the session:

How is our Father’s will done ‘in heaven’?

after feedback from this initial question:

How does this shape our approach to discipleship ‘on earth’?

When there is a clash between what I want, and what I know God wants, how can I echo Jesus’ prayer: Yet not as I will, but as you will? What help do I need here?

Make sure you protect the time to pray together.

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: Q&A 183-187

Prepare for praying together through ‘Give us today our daily bread…’

Over this month:

Keep a note of when, what, how you pray throughout this month

When do I pray…?  ...or not pray?

Are there times when I’m praying more often?

What am I praying about…?  for…?

Are my prayers being answered?

This will not be shared. This is the last week we’ll be working on this.