Study 1: Praying Scripture

Head

Heart

1. Have you tried to use Scripture as a guide for your prayer before? If not, why?

2. We tend to think of prayer as trying to influence God, but has prayer ever changed you?

Hands

1. Pick one of the following passages to memorize: Amos 4:13; John 3:16;  or Ephesians 3:14-21. As you work to memorize it, try to use it as a guide for your prayers this week. 

Study 2: The Lord's Prayer

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done,

    on earth as it is in heaven.”

– Matthew 6:9-10

For the rest of the week we will be looking at the Lord’s Prayer to guide our own. 

“In chapter 4 (of Revelation) God’s sovereignty is seen as it is already fully acknowledged in heaven. This establishes it as the true reality which must in the end also prevail on earth. On earth the powers of evil challenge God’s role and even masquerade as the ultimate power of all things, claiming divinity. But heaven in the sphere of ultimate reality: what is true in heaven must become true on earth. 

– Richard Bauckham

Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 190. For what do we pray in the first request?

In the first request (hallowed be your name), we acknowledge that we and all human beings are completely incapable of honoring God properly and are even disinclined to do so. We pray then that he would by his grace enable and incline us and others to know, to acknowledge, and to esteem him highly, his titles, attributes, regulations, word, works, and everything else by which he is pleased to reveal himself, and to glorify him in thought, word, and deed, to the effect that he would thwart and do away with atheism, spiritual ignorance, idolatry or any kind of desecration, and whatever else dishonors him, and that by his invincible providence, he would direct and regulate everything to his own glory.

Head

1. How do we address God in prayer? 

2. What is the significance of this?

3. What does it mean to “hallow” a name?

4. What is God’s kingdom?  

Heart

1. When you address God as your father, do you really believe that? Why or why not? 

2. Do you find it difficult to hallow God’s name?

3. Are your prayers more concerned with your will being done or God’s?

4. Where do you find it hardest to trust in God’s will?

Hands

1. All Christian churches are part of God’s kingdom. Take a few minutes to pray for some of the other churches we have a relationship  with. Pray for God to use them in growing his kingdom. Consider reaching out to one or two of these churches to let them know you are praying for them and see if they have specific ways you can pray.

   1. Copper Hills Church, Herriman

   2. Corner Canyon Church, Draper

   3. Salt Lake Chin Church (uses our building for worship on Sunday evenings)

   4. The Mission Church, South Jordan

   5. Crossroads Church, Sandy

   6. River Community Church, West Jordan

   7. Crosstower Church, West Jordan

2. Take some of the areas it’s hardest for you to trust God’s will and pray for him to help you trust him more. 

Study 3: The Lord's Prayer

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

– Matthew 6:13

In the Western World we have become so accustomed to our extraordinary affluence that for many of us this petition has lost its power. That can only be because we have lost a biblical view of life. The food we eat is our only because God upholds our universe and gives us seedtime and harvest. But beyond that, the food we earth nourishes us only because of his blessing.

– Sinclair Ferguson

Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 193. For what do we pray for in the fourth request? 

 In the fourth request (Give us today our daily bread), we acknowledge that in Adam and by our own sin we have forfeited any right to all of the outward blessings of this life, that we deserve to be completely deprived of them by God and to have their use by us cursed, and that the outward blessings of this life are not in and of themselves capable of sustaining us,  nor do we deserve  or actually obtain them by our own efforts, but lust after, acquire, and use them in unlawful ways. We pray then for ourselves and others that both they and we may wait daily on God’s providential allowance of the outward blessings of this life and that, according to what his fatherly wisdom decides is best, we may lawfully enjoy his free gift of what is sufficient for us. We also pray that God would continue to bless us with sufficient worldly goods, that they would sustain our needs and be sanctified by us, that we would be satisfied with them, and that God would protect us from anything that undermines our support and sustenance in this world.

Head

1. What do we pray for in verse 11?

2. How much bread do we pray for? What’s the significance of this?

3. What’s the relationship between forgiveness and being forgiven?

Heart

1. Daily bread seems to indicate we should pray for what we need each day. Do you pray this way, or do you find yourself praying for more than “daily” bread. Why?

2. Who do you struggle to forgive? 

3. What anger are you holding in your heart?

Hands

1. Take a few minutes to meditate and pray this prayer:

O Lord, in whom is the source and inexhaustible fountain of all good things, pour out thy blessing upon us, and sanctify to our use the meat and drink which are the gifts of thy kindness towards us, that we, using them soberly and frugally as thou enjoinest, may eat with pure conscience. Grant, also, that we may always both with true heartfelt gratitude acknowledge, and with our lips proclaim thee our Father and the giver of all good, and, while enjoying bodily nourishment, aspire with special longing of heart after the bread of they doctrine, by which our souls may be nourished in the hope of eternal life, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen

– John Calvin

Study 4: The Lord’s Prayer

13 And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from the evil one.’

– Matthew 6:13

Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 195. For what do we pray in the sixth request?

In the sixth request (And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one1), we acknowledge that God, who is completely wise, righteous, and gracious, may, for various holy and just purposes, ordain circumstances by which we become the target of temptations, are defeated, and temporarily taken captive by them; that Satan, the world, and our own sinful natures have a powerful potential to turn us aside from righteousness and trap us; and that even after our sins have been forgiven, we are naturally so depraved, spiritually weak, and inattentive to our spiritual condition that we are not only prey to temptations and willingly expose ourselves to them but are completely incapable of and unwilling to resist, get away from, or use them as opportunities for our spiritual growth—and consequently we deserve to be left under their power. We pray then that God would so rule over the world and everyone in it, so curb our sinful natures and restrain Satan, so ordain all things, so endow and bless all the means of grace and sharpen our awareness in the use of them, that we and all his people may be providentially spared from being tempted to sin; or, if tempted, that his Spirit would powerfully support and enable us to resist during the time of our temptation; or, should we fall, that we would be raised again and restored, with the experience being thereby sanctified and used for our spiritual growth; and that our sanctification and salvation may be made complete, Satan trampled under our feet, and we become completely delivered from sin, temptation, and all evil, forever.

Head

1. How could God lead us into temptation? Look up James 1:13-15. How do you think Jesus' prayer relates to what James writes? 

2. How could God deliver us from the evil one?

Heart

1. Where do you commonly succumb to temptation?

2. Where do you intentionally not avoid temptation? 

3. Where do you allow yourself to indulge in smaller temptations that seem innocent?

Hands

1. Pray for God to help deliver you from those temptations in the areas you struggle most.

2. Pray that God would help you to be vigilant to fight even small temptations before they get larger.

3. Pray that God would help you to see his way of living as more life-giving than what those temptations offer.