March 2022 Week 4
Friday
Prayer
Make Your Life a Life of Prayer
Lesson Objective: Looking at Suggestions to fill your life with prayer
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5: 16
Pray without ceasing
Every day we should have a prayer in our heart and keep that prayer in our heart throughout the entire day. Here are some tips to help foster a lifestyle of prayer. 1) Set aside a daily personal time for prayer. If need be set your alarm on your phone so you will not forget. 2) Find someone who can hold you accountable 3) Couple your prayer time with fasting 4) Learn to also pray for others 5) Be persistent in your prayer time 6) Understand the importance of always praising God in prayer and song. I trust that this week’s words reinforce your prayer life or ignite a fire that burns so bright that you have to keep the fire burning through prayer.
Thought for the day: Prayer is a two-way street so keep the lines of communication open at all times
Thursday
Prayer
Model Prayer and Common Forms of Prayer
Lesson Objective: To revisit the model prayer and other forms of prayers that we can use in our prayer life
Scripture: Acts 4:31
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Many of us as a child was asked to learn the model prayer. While we learned it I am not so sure that we understood the reason while it is considered a model prayer other than Christ responded with the prayer when the disciples asked to be taught how to pray. The model prayer addresses several components of a Christian lifestyle. 1) Unification—“our father” we are a family and as such we have the same father and we should recognize this unity at all times even when we have disagreements. 2) Reverence- “Hollowed be thy name” as God is worthy to be praised and exalted about all others. 3) Petition- God is our provider and thus we should ask God to meet our needs 4) Forgiveness- This forgiveness is directed to God for what we have done wrong but we must also forgive anyone who seeks forgiveness from us 5) Trust- Asking God to lead us and be willing to follow. While not required of every prayer it is good to understand these components as we enter a life of prayer. Often times we may choose to offer a specific prayer such as the prayer of Thanksgiving, prayer of intercession, or prayer of spiritual warfare.
Thought for the day: Christ gave us a model prayer and he left the Holy Spirit to guide us in our prayers. Just PRAY
Wednesday
Prayer
Lesson Objective: To examine several reasons why we should pray
Scripture: John 15: 15
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
James 2:23
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[a] and he was called God’s friend.
There are multiple reasons why we should pray however for me one of the primary reasons is that I want to be a friend of God. The primary element of a friendship is communication. Communication is a two-way street where both parties speak and listen to each other. Prayer is our way of communicating with God. Often times the problem is that we speak to God but we do not wait for God to speak to us. Prayer should be a two-way street where we talk to God and as a true friend God wants to speak to us. The question is do we give God the time to speak to us and do we listen. As a child, many of us are taught to say prayers either at night before going to bed or as a Grace when preparing to eat. However, we were not always taught how to listen. Other reasons to pray are that Christ prayed as an example for us and gave us the model prayer, a way to demonstrate our faith, and a way to live out our Christian life.
Thought for the day: Remember we should always stay in contact with our friends
Tuesday
Prayer
Why People Do Not Pray?
Lesson Objective: To look at the barriers that keep us from having a praying lifestyle’
Scripture: Job 15: 4
“Indeed, you do away with reverence, And hinder meditation before God.
One of the major barriers in praying is that we oftentimes forget who God is and fail to fear him as the Bible instructs. This fear is not one of being ‘scared of God’ but having reverence for him and truly understanding who he is. Other barriers are losing our passion for God (Job 27:10), and sometimes we just become lazy in our spiritual walk. We find a reason to put off prayer time. We begin to think that we need that extra five minutes of bedtime not realizing that we need the prayer time to replenish our spirit. I encourage each of us to not allow any barrier to come between us and our designated prayer time.
Thought for the day: Prayer time is for the wise. Prayer is unlike the apple it does not keep the doctor away but keeps God close to us
Prayer
A life of prayer
Lesson Objective: To review the components of prayer and why we must include prayer as an ongoing component in our lives
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-19
Rejoice always, 17 wpray without ceasing, 18 xgive thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 yDo not quench the Spirit
One of the key points in life is finding some type of consistency. It is very difficult to make decisions when there are variables in our life and we must decide whether to choose option 1 or option 2 or even option 3. Either option can be right depending on the circumstances. However, praying does not offer us options for we are to pray always. It is very easy to form a habit when one does it every day all day. The only question is how to pray. The disciples asked Christ to teach them how to pray. The model prayer has these components:
F Faith
A Adoration
C Confession
T Thanksgiving
S Supplication
Thought for the day: Remembering that God has an answer to our prayers 1) Yes 2) No 3) Wait I got something better