Celebration of Discipline:
The Discipline of Prayer - "Realize that prayer is a learning process."
(Downloadable Word document)

Luke 18:1 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Matt 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Phil 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Each of us have experience in prayer! (Divide into groups and discuss the following:)
How do you define prayer? …as many definitions as there are people!
What is purpose or benefits of prayer? Or why pray?…your experiences in prayer?
Are there rules to praying? …. how do you go about it? …. when do you pray?
What do you most often pray about? …how often?

What is prayer? …

* According to Foster, "Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Prayer is the most central of all the disciplines because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father".
* Prayer is personal communion and dialogue with the living God - an ongoing dialogue with God as we practice His presence in the context of our daily activities.
* Dallas Willard: "Prayer is basically one of asking, requesting things from God". It is "talking to God about what we are doing together". Prayer is nothing but a proper way for persons to interact. Prayer is a way of co-laboring with God to accomplish good things and advance his Kingdom purposes.
* Calvin Miller: "Praying is the art of focusing and allowing our focus to conduct us into his presence".
* Evelyn Underwood: "Prayer is that part of our conscious life which is deliberately oriented towards and exclusively responds to spiritual reality. God is that spiritual reality and we believe God to be immanent in all things: "he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being".
* William Law: "prayer is the rising of the soul out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity".
* Prayer at its highest is the meeting of a holy God with his child who hungers for holiness.
* Prayer is good souls asking for good things and the best of all good things is Jesus himself.

Why pray?…. your motivation and experience?

* First, foremost and primary is the example of Jesus. His life from beginning to end was dependent on constant and consistent prayer - communion and intimacy with the Father.
* Prayer is both opportunity and a privilege. Prayer is where we draw near to God to receive His grace, to release our burdens and fears, and to get honest with the Lord.
* The way to transformed passions ("When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" - James 4:3)
* The example of other, "explorers in the frontiers of faith", in their habit of prayer.
(Biblical characters: Moses, Ezra, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah, Elijah, Hannah, David, and Paul;
Devotional Classics; Henri Nowen: Michael Quiost: John Baille)

Why is prayer important? …. Its benefits? …. as a discipline?

* Foster says, "To pray is to change "if we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives." Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.
* William Carey: "Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness"
* Dallas Willard: Prayer is above all a means of forming character. If prayer is "talking to God about what we are doing together" - sharing with God my concerns about what he too is concerned about in my life. And God is concerned about my concerns and in particular that my concerns coincide with his.
* In real prayer, we begin to think God's thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills. Real prayer is life creating and life changing.
Phil 2:10 - "God is at work in you…. And we are coworkers with God…

How to pray:

* BELIEVE that prayer makes a difference - expect that a change should and will occur.
* Begin where you are….., with smaller things.
* Get in contact with God; quiet yourself.
* Develop an inner sense of compassion; NOT DREAD.
* Use your imagination - it helps us to believe that it will be so
NOT tying to conjure up something in our imaginations.
NOT tying to manipulate God and tell him what to do.

Types of prayer … Is there a form/pattern to your prayers? How do you go about it? How often?

* Most of our prayers are prayers of petition. However, prayer is never just asking, but we are to pray for the things that concern us. Prayer as asking/petition presupposes a personal relationship between us and God (e.g., the request of child to parent or friend to friend) and assumes that our natural concerns will be naturally expressed and that God will hear our prayers for ourselves as well as for others (e.g., the Psalms)
* Prayers should include Adoration …Confession…. Thanksgiving…Supplication
* Intercession? (focus of chapter - p54) when praying for others no room for *if it be thy will*. Why?
* Flash prayers? (p44)
* Guidance? Relinquishment? ….are "if it be thy will" prayers.
* The model prayer (Mt. 6:5-15 and Lk. 11:1-4) disciples - "Teach us to pray …" did not ask to be taught how to preach, witness, heal, etc. Why?
Jesus provides in a simple way a wonderful model for learning to pray effectively, it begins with praise: "Hallowed be thy name", moves to priorities: "thy kingdom come, thy will be done", then to provision: "give us this day…" then to personal relationships: "forgive us our debts as ….", to protection: "lead us not into temptation …", and ends with promise: "for thine is the kingdom…..".
(The "Lord's prayer" found in John 17:11 where he prayed for himself).

Objects of prayer? What do you most often pray about?

* Our marriage and family - our children, grandchildren, parents other children with special needs.
* Our church - staff, pastor and the services of worship.
* Our own sin and sinfulness - sexual deviations.
* Strangers you pass every day on the street
* Against evil
* Guidance, wisdom