Dangerous Prayers

This is our last week in our prayer series, and the last week of our Winter Community Group trimester before a 2-week break. Groups begin again the week of April 14th.

Here are 4 ideas for your prayer time this week:

1.     Confession: Share something you’ve been struggling with that you have not told others about. Ask for prayer for this.

2.     Read Psalm 139:23-24. Read this passage in your prayer time and pray those 3 prayers: Search me, Test me, Lead me.

3.     Private and Communal Prayers: Have each person spend 5 minutes in personal prayer, then spend 5-15 minutes praying all together.

4.     Prayer Partners for Community Group Break: Write your prayers on a 3x5 card or sticky note, then exchange cards with a prayer partner for the 2-week group break ahead. Connect with your partner at least 1x a week during the break.

Developing a Habit of Prayer

In Nate’s message on Sunday he challenged us to have a habit of praying with others in Community.

Community Group meetings are the primary place that happens each week, but let’s not end there.

Make a plan this week for everyone in your group to pray with at least one other group member during the week, between meetings.

It could be on the phone, over a meal, coffee, or a walk in the park.

In your prayer time as a group this week:

• Pair up

• Plan a day and time

Don’t leave your meeting without a plan.

Praying Scripture

In Sunday’s message Bailey talked about using the very words of Scripture as our words in prayer, and then praying our own words in line with what we’ve read.

Bailey provided a list of psalms we can use to guide our prayers.

In your prayer time this week, pick out one psalm or several to pray through with your group.

There are psalms for when we:

·       have messed up: Psalm 32

·       are in trouble: Psalm 27

·       are broken: Psalm 42

·       are oppressed and need justice: Psalm 9

·       are in the middle of a trial: Psalm 28

·       are experiencing relational conflict: Psalm 133

·       want God’s blessing: Psalm 1

·       want to praise God: Psalm 145

·       don’t want to praise God: Psalm 104

·       want to live for God: Psalm 15

·       need comfort: Psalm 23

·       need to be reminded of what Jesus did for us: Psalm 22

·       need forgiveness: Psalm 51

·       need to cry out in desperation: Psalm 88

·       need to refocus: Psalm 37

·       need God’s help: Psalm 57

·       feel God is distant or indifferent: Psalm 139

·       feel God has forgotten us: Psalm 13

·       doubt our worth: Psalm 8

·       doubt God’s goodness: Psalm 19

·       doubt God’s love: Psalm 103

·       doubt God’s forgiveness: Psalm 130

·       doubt God’s ability to help: Psalm 146

·       doubt God’s faithfulness: Psalm 13

Teach Us to Pray

As you prepare for group, here are some ideas for how you may want to pray together this week:

• Consider reading Jesus’ prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 in your prayer time. Pause after each verse, and pray about what Jesus talks about in that verse.

• If you don’t usually pray with men and women together, consider praying all together this week.

• Consider breaking into smaller prayer groups of 2 or 3.

• Pair up group members to call each other during the week to pray together.

• Consider meeting up an additional time during the week to pray (breakfast, coffee, before church, after church, dinner together, at a park, at the beach).

We’d also love to share ideas from other groups of what has worked well to pray with and for each other. Can you share your thoughts in the survey below?

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The Necessity of Prayer

This is week 2 of our 6-week series on prayer.

While we want our groups to talk about prayer and learn from the Scriptures how to pray, we want to do more than just talk about praying. We’d love to spend more time praying together.

Consider abbreviating discussion time so you can spend more time praying with your group. Or consider spending a whole meeting praying and skipping sermon discussion.

Here are some ideas for prayer together:

• Pick prayer partners.

• Do extemporaneous prayers (no one assigned, not in a circle). As someone to start and someone to close.

• Pray one sentence long prayers, thanking God for something:

  • “Thank you for friendships.”

  • “Thank you for listening to us.”

  • “Thank you for dying for us and rising again.”

• Pray one sentence long prayers asking God for something:

  • “Please forgive our sins.”

  • “Please heal my wife’s body.”

  • “Please save my neighbor.”

• Pray the Bible by reading one passage at a time and then praying about what you read.

• Share your requests as you pray instead of talking first and then praying.

• Call each other during the week and pray with each other.

What else would you add?

My Problems With Prayer

This is week 1 of our 6 week series on prayer. This is a great opportunity to spend more focused time in prayer with your group.

You may want to break into smaller prayer groups of 2 or 3 so people can spend more time sharing and praying.

You may also consider having everyone write down their prayer requests on a 3x5 card and then trade cards with your group members. This makes it easy for people who are newer to or uncomfortable with prayer; all they need to do is read the prayer off of the card.

One other idea for your prayer time would be to share your prayer requests as you pray. This will save time as everyone will hear what you would like prayer for by listening to your prayers.