Read:
Jesus On Prayer | Pastor Greg Surratt
When something uncontrollable happens - Pray.
Jesus says ask, and you will receive.
Seek God’s will for your life.
The search can be frustrating but giving up and quitting, may cause you to miss out on God’s gift.
God has doors of opportunity that He wants to open for you.
There are things already on the table that God has prepared for you.
Jesus says to trust. – Ask, seek, knock and then trust.
Jesus says to do. – Pray, trust then do.
Faith without works is dead. – what you believe must inform/direct your behavior.
Christians should not look, act, or speak like the world; yet survey after survey indicates there is no difference.
Do not express hate onto people, we must love others. They will know we are Christians by our love.
Discussion Questions:
How many of you have ever prayed/asked for something and it didn’t look like you got an answer?
Have you ever prayed for something, and then later found out that you were better off with God-saying not yet, or no?
To seek means to search. Searching takes effort. Have you ever grown tired of searching and settled? How did that work out for you?
Have you ever faced a closed door? How did you approach the situation?
What are things we can do to not give up; to continue on and not lose hope?
Have you ever been told not to pray for patience, because God will do something to put you through a hard situation? (Like make you constantly get stuck behind slow drivers, or stand in long checkout lines at the store… etc.) - is that an appropriate way of thinking when it comes to prayer?
Do you think life was better/worse under Roman rule vs. how the world is today?
Our beliefs inform/direct our behaviors. (agree/disagree?)
Can you share an experience where you had to check your behavior in response to a situation?
Commit to devoting 10 minutes a day for prayer.
Consider walking through your neighborhood and praying specifically for the needs of your neighbors.
Ask God to lead you in praying specifically for neighbor’s needs (know or unknown).
Set a goal this month to get into the word and read:
Read: Luke 11:1-13
What jumps out at you when you compare with Matthew’s account?