Unwavering: Praying Dependent Prayers Consistently

Transcription

1 Unwavering: Praying Dependent Prayers Consistently Lesson Objective: The point of the lesson is that your students would understand that God wants us to acknowledge our dependence on Him through consistent prayer. Scripture Focus: Luke 11:5-13 Background Passage: Luke 11:1-4 Overview: Jesus had just finished sharing with His disciples a model for how to pray when He told a story to contrast human behavior with God s behavior. It s one of those passages in Scripture that can seem hard to grasp at first. But the truth of this parable is extremely instructive for us and for our students. Jesus told this story to highlight an often- lacking quality in prayer: persistent dependence. God desires for us to be consistent in offering God- centered prayer. These prayers exalt God s name and sets us on the course of seeing our lives as His ambassadors to the world. In this study, your students will define what dependence and consistency look like in their contexts, and will be challenged to embrace these qualities in their prayer life. Jump In Goal: The goal is for you students to start thinking about their dependence and lack of self- sufficiency. Set- up: If you have a dry- erase board it may come in handy. FIRST, start the lesson by getting students to think about the concept of dependence and what it means to acknowledge and appreciate whom they re dependent on. Ask students to create a list of things they depend on to make it through each day. You can do this by having students simply call out their responses, or have fun and draw pictures of their answers on the board (i.e. food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc.). Next, ask students to name some of their favorite possessions (i.e. cell phone, computer, video game systems, ipods, etc.). Again, if you want, they can draw these things on the board as well. NEXT, ask students how they re able to have all of these things. Ask if they d be able to live in their home if they had to pay the rent or mortgage? Would they be able to buy all the food they need on their own? Or have transportation to all the places they go if someone didn t drive them there or provide the vehicle, gas, and insurance they needed to have a car? (You get the idea.) Now, some of them may have paid for their ipods or some of the other items on the board, but for the most part, this discussion should illustrate how dependent they are on others. (If you ve drawn the list on the board, as you mention something that they couldn t provide on their own, put an X over it to show all the things they depend on others for.) Lead students in a short discussion. (Answers may vary.) Ask: What would happen if you were left completely on your own with no one to provide for you? How well could you thrive? How would you, gasp, pay your cell phone bill? So, if your parent(s) or guardian(s) know that you re dependent on them, why do you think they want to hear you acknowledge it every once in a while? What difference do you think it makes to hear you say thanks or express appreciation for all they do for you?

2 Talk for a little bit about how easy it is to start taking things for granted and never realizing the need to express thankfulness for things we would never have on our own. Make sure students understand that the issue is their heart. Parents know their kids depend on them, but they want to know that their children recognize this. They don t want to be taken for granted. FINALLY, explain to students that in a lot of ways our relationship to God is the same. Say: Not only do we depend on God for every material possession we have, we depend on Him for the next breath we take. He s everything to us and He knows it. God knows that we depend on Him for everything. He knows that without Him, we d be hopeless. The thing is that He wants us to recognize it. He wants us to acknowledge every step of the way that everything we have and everything we are depends on Him. In this lesson, we re going to learn what it means to consistently pray these dependent prayers. The Big Idea Goal: The goal is for your students to realize that consistent prayer is the way we acknowledge our dependence on God. Set- up: None FIRST, ask students the following question: In your opinion, how does prayer demonstrate our dependence on God? o Answers may vary, and don t try to force a correct answer out of the gate. As much as anything, allow them to simply consider the concept. THEN, explain to students that there is no better way for us to show our dependence on God than to express our needs, concerns, and desire to live for Him directly to Him. If we could handle things on our own, there would be no need for prayer. There would be no need to express our fears, desires, or needs because we would be able to take care of them ourselves. Remind them that this obviously isn t the case. Say: Just like children depend on their parents or guardians for various things, we depend on God for everything. The problem is that we lose sight of this truth way too easily. Explain that though this may be true, we can t get confused here and start thinking of God like some genie in a bottle who s going to do everything we ask Him. Say: It s so easy for us to approach prayer like it s a time to just rattle off the things we want in life without considering what God wants for us. This is why Christ taught His disciples a model for how to pray. NEXT, instruct students to find Luke 11 in their Bibles or Bible apps. Instruct a volunteer to read the model prayer Christ gives His disciples in Luke 11:1-4. When he or she has finished, ask: Where in this prayer do you see signs of dependence on God? o Answers: Acknowledging God s supremacy over all things; the appeal for daily provision; the acknowledgment of our sin and the desire to be forgiven; the acknowledgment that we are prone to temptation, and so on. Explain that when we pray according to this model, we re acknowledging that we can t do things on our own, that we need God in our lives. This shows that we truly treasure God above all else and understand our position in relation to Him. Explain that the model prayer Jesus gave helps show us how important God should 2013, youthministry360 2

3 be in our lives, and how dependent we should be on Him for our needs, both spiritual and physical. And this dependency drives our prayer; if we don t we depend on God, there s no reason for us to talk to Him or ask Him for anything. Lead students in a brief discussion. Ask: What are some reasons that prayer is a struggle? What is the difference between knowing you depend on God in your head and actually living like you depend on Him? Do you ever fear how God will answer you? Or doubt that He will actually give you what you need? If so, how does this impact your desire to pray? Help students understand that our experience with other people, and how they let us down or fail to come through, can actually flavor our interaction with God. But if this happens, it s a big mistake on our part. God isn t like people. He always comes through, and always hears our prayers. Explain that Jesus told a story to illustrate this point. THEN, instruct students to look at verses Explain that this is one of those stories in Scripture that can be tricky for modern day audiences to immediately grasp. But when we figure out what s going on, it s a powerful reminder of God s desire to answer our prayers, and our dependency on Him. Then, read or have a student read Luke 11:5-10. When he or she has finished, lead students in a discussion: What s the problem here in this short story? What s the need at hand? o Answer: The first friend has no food to offer the friend who has visited his house. Explain that we miss the significance of this. Hospitality was a crucial aspect of Jewish culture. To fail to have any bread for a visitor was a very embarrassing social issue. How does the friend with no bread decide to fix his issue? o Answer: He asks his neighbor for bread. What is the problem with this solution? o Answer: It s the middle of the night and his neighbor appears to be unwilling to help. Explain that up to this point, everything makes pretty clear sense. But it s the way Jesus wraps it up in verse 8 that can be confusing. In verse 8, what does Jesus say actually happens? Does the guy with no bread actually get the bread he asked for? (Yes) What is the reason Jesus gives for the neighbor answering the friend s late night request for bread? o Answer: The reason the friend grants the request is not necessarily because he loves his neighbor, or because he desires to help. The neighbor helps out because this friend won t go away! The word boldness (NIV) is translated impudence in the ESV and shameless persistence in the NLT. In the Greek, this word describes someone who fails to consider the proper way to ask, or is asking without being respectful. The neighbor only answered this guy s request so that he could get back to bed! Explain that Jesus was telling this story to make a point about the way God answers our prayers by comparing God s response to the neighbor s response in this story. Ask if at this point students can grasp the point Jesus is trying to make. Allow them to take a shot at it. Whether they are successful at making the connection or not, read aloud verses 9-10 to them. When you have finished, say something like: Jesus point is simple: the friend s persistence, bad manners and all, led his neighbor to grudgingly open his door and help him out in his time of need. Jesus is showing us that if this is how humans answer each other s requests, humans who are flawed and imperfect, how much more amazingly 2013, youthministry360 3

4 awesome will God, who is perfectly loving and knows what we need before we do, answer our prayers? Jesus shows us that God stands ready to meet our needs if we will come to Him in dependence, and do so with persistence. NEXT, instruct students to look back at verse 9. Explain to the students that Jesus words here are all about God s desire to provide for us. But we have to be dependent on Him for meeting our needs. Explain that if we think we can handle things on our own, there s no reason for persistent, dependent prayer. Explain that in verse 9 the verbs ask, seek, and knock are in the present tense, which in Greek means that they are a continuous action. Ask: Why is this significant? In other words, what does this say about the way we should ask and seek God? o Answer: The idea is that we are to keep asking, and it will be given to us; keep seeking, and we will find; keep knocking, and it will be opened to us. Why is this vital in our prayer lives? o Answer: This is an important point for us to realize. We generally aren t very persistent in our prayers. We get something on our mind, pray about for a little while and then move on when we get over it or nothing happens, or even if God meets our need. Even when God comes through, we have a tendency to stop praying all together until the next thing we need pops up. FINALLY, have a student read verses Ask a student to summarize what Jesus is saying here. Explain that Jesus is describing earthly fathers willingness to give their children what they need. He s asking the question: If earthly fathers are willing to do this, how much more willing is our heavenly father to give us the Holy Spirit when we ask Him? Ask: Does this passage give you comfort and security in coming before God in prayer? How so? o Answer: God wants us to come to Him. He wants to give us what we need. And He isn t out to harm us. He is eager to provide us with what we need. How can it be a good thing for God to not answer our prayers like we think He should? In other words, why is it comforting to know that God answers our prayers in accordance with His perfect knowledge of what we need? Explain to students that there s no getting around it: it can be frustrating if God doesn t always answer our prayers the way we want Him to. Explain that it s easy to feel like He doesn t have our best interest at heart or that He doesn t care what s going on with us. But remind them that when we start to feel like this, we have to look to passages like this and trust that what God says here is true, that He does care for us and wants to give us what we need. Say something like: We have to learn that sometimes we don t really know what s best for us, but God does. We also have to look back at our lives and all the things God has done for us. If He s always been there for us in the past, what reason do we have to doubt that He s there for us now? When we truly grasp the fact that God cares for us and desires for us to come to him in prayer, it gives us encouragement and security to carry our burdens to Him. Wrap Up Goal: The goal of this section is to kick- start the students towards a persistent and God- centered prayer life. Set- Up: You ll need to make enough copies of the Student Prayer Guide so that every student can have a copy. 2013, youthministry360 4

5 FIRST, engage students in a brief discussion about their prayer lives. Ask: When do you pray? What is the normal content of your prayers? You don t have to answer this out loud, but are your prayers more me- centered or God- centered? Describe how dependent you are on God to meet your needs. How is your answer reflected in your prayer life? How persistent are you in showing God your dependence through prayer? Are you committed to prayer, or do you find yourself struggling with consistency? Why is it easy to be inconsistent in our prayer lives? Why is it easy to give up praying for something? o Answer: Explain that for many of us, we need to drastically overhaul the way we approach prayer. Rather than just coming to God with our laundry list of wants, or asking Him to do what we think we need, we need to begin to seek His will and desire for our lives. How can our desires become more in- tune with God s desires and will through God- honoring prayer? Remind students that God desires for His children to come before Him in prayer. The issue, however, is that He has given us a model to go by and too often we chunk it out the window and just fill our prayer time with request after request without stopping for a second to seek His heart and will for our lives. Explain that you re going to help give them a guide to help them pray this week in a way that will follow Jesus model prayer, and will guide them in having a dependant attitude and will help them be practice persistence in their prayer lives. THEN, distribute the Student Prayer Guide to your students. Go over the different sections of the sheet. Encourage students to use this guide as a way to go to God daily in prayer. Explain that it shouldn t be approached as a chore or a legalistic check box task, but should be seen as a way to encourage them to begin to grow a healthy prayer relationship with God. FINALLY, after asking if anyone has any closing thoughts or questions, wrap up your time together by closing in prayer, modeling the kind of God- centered, dependant prayer Jesus urged us to pray. NOTE: Make sure you follow up with students at least once during the week to encourage them to stick with their daily prayer using their guide. This level of relational accountability will go a long way in helping them follow- through with this healthy habit. We Want To Hear From You... Do you have questions about a lesson? Something that worked particularly well you want to share? Something that didn t work you want to bring up? We value your feedback! Please do not hesitate to us with your questions, comments, or concerns, at feedback@youthministry360.com. 2013, youthministry360 5