January Series Study Guide - Day 11

For any relationship to grow, we must spend time with another. It is the same with God. If we want to have a growing relationship with God we must spend time with Him. Prayer is one way we spend time deepening our relationship with God. In a nutshell, prayer involves two things: Talking with and listening to God.

Jesus’s disciples asked Him how to pray. Jesus taught them how to pray in Matt 6:9-15. Generally, Jesus’ prayer had four components: Praise, Asking, Repentance, Yielding. Many use Jesus’ model of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer as a general form in which to pray. An easy way to remember each of these components is the acronym P.R.A.Y.

PRAISE (Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….):

ASK (Give us this day our daily bread…)

REPENTANCE (Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors….)

YIELD: (your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.)

Together this week, we are going to unpack the significance of the Lord’s pray and seek to understand how it can revolutionize our prayer life.

Read Matthew 6:9-15

Jesus says that when you pray start with “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Wow! Here is the miracle of prayer. Prayer is intimacy with the almighty! A prayer revolution begins with understanding that we are adopted into His family! That Jesus came to live the life we did not and died the death we should of so by trusting what He did for us on the cross we could be part of His family. The God of the universe invites us to His table…but the only way for us to get there is if Jesus brings us!! My Father is the creator. My daddy is the king! This is the miracle of prayer. Prayer is a relationship of familiarity and reverence blended together! Familiarity without reverence will lead to flippancy. Reverence without familiarity will lead to empty and hollow religious prayer! Talking to God as my Father will revolutionize the way I pray! The Lord’s Prayer was never given to be a prayer we recite but to teach a reality and an attitude of prayer to be realized! This truth will revolutionize our praying in several ways. First, praying will be an amazing privilege instead of religious duty. Prayer will be worship when we realize the amazing grace of God that we are called His sons and daughters. Second, I can be real. I don’t need to impress God or try to fake Him out because the One I am talking to knows me inside out and loves me and wants to hear from me! Third, I can have peace even when my prayers are not answered. When my prayers go unanswered I know I have a Father who loves me and has a perspective I do not have. I can have confidence He will give me what I ask or what I would have asked, if I knew what He knew! Finally I can be persistent in my praying. This is different than hollow repetition. Because I am His child, I can go to Him anytime and all the time!

Q: What are different examples of hollow and meaningless praying?

Q: How does seeing God as Father revolutionize the way you talk to Him?

Q: What does your prayer life reveal about your relationship with God?

Q: How do you normally respond to unanswered prayer?

Q: What is the danger of familiarity without reverence? What is the danger of reverence without familiarity? Which do you struggle most with?