Prayer Discipleship Plan
Summary:
Prayer is a cornerstone of our faith. If we are not consistently in prayer, then we will genuinely begin to see our faith shrink and our walk with God will suffer. Unfortunately, prayer is something that can feel abstract and can feel challenging. Our goal is to help you as you grow in prayer. We would love for you to then walk through this with a friend.
This is not an exhaustive list of passages or resources that help us learn about prayer, these are just some highlights. Please feel free to add additional passages and resources as you go through this.
As with all of our Practical Theology Corner Resources, we want this to be applicable, practical and missional!
Biblical Texts:
Matthew 6:5-15
Luke 11:1-13
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
1 Peter 5:6-7
Philippians 4:6-7
Ephesians 3:14-21
Jonah 4:2-3
Daniel 9
1 Chronicles 29:10-19
Overview:
Week 1- The Heart of Prayer
Main Point: Prayer is a gift from God. God speaks to us through the Bible and we speak to God through prayer.
Biblical Passages:
Matthew 6:5-15
Luke 11:1-13
(Optional) Jonah 4:2-3
Starting Questions:
What does Jesus pray for?
What is the central emphasis of Jesus’s prayer?
How does that differ from how we often pray?
How can we apply that to our lives?
Activity:
Prayer Journal
Week 2- Prayer in Action
Main Point: We should engage in prayer at all times and in all situations, no matter how we are doing.
Biblical Passages:
Philippians 4:4-7
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
1 Peter 5:6-7
Starting Questions:
When should we pray? Why does that matter? How can we do that?
What are we to pray about? Why does that matter?
Is there anything too big for God to handle in prayer? Why does that matter?
Activity:
Prayer Walk
Week 3- Prayer in the New Testament
Main Point: Prayer is fundamentally not individualistic. Prayer unites us and brings us into alignment with God’s will.
Biblical Passages:
Ephesians 3:14-21
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
Optional- Ephesians 1:15-23
Starting Questions:
What does Paul emphasize in his prayers? How can we learn from that?
What do we emphasize when we pray?
Prayer is rarely about one person in scripture. Why do we pray as individuals? Why is it so important that we pray not only for ourselves, but for our Christian community?
Activity:
Praying Scripture
Week 4- Prayer in the Old Testament
Main Point: Prayer involves praising God, confession of sins and bringing requests to God.
Biblical Passages:
Daniel 9
1 Chronicles 29:10-19
Starting Questions:
What do Daniel and David emphasize in their prayer lives?
Confession of sin is a major prayer emphasis in the Old Testament. What is confession? What is repentance? How do we practice confession and repentance in our prayer lives?
Daniel and David bring their requests to God. What are their requests? How can we learn from what they bring to God? How can their example be applied to our lives?
Activity:
10 Minute Prayer Challenge
Suggested Activities:
Prayer Journal
Habits are hard! That’s where a prayer journal can be helpful. The idea of a “Prayer Journal” is to keep track of when you are praying. This is not meant as a permanent tool, but rather as a helpful tool as you begin to ingrain prayer more into your daily life. There is no right or wrong answer to keeping a prayer journal, but some helpful ideas might be writing down when you prayed, or writing down some things you gave thanks for, or even prayer requests that you are told so that you can bring them to God! A prayer journal can be a helpful tool for reflection because it allows us to see God answering our prayers! Our recommendation is that you start a prayer journal your first week going through this and that you reflect back on it after you have these completed four weeks of scriptural study on prayer!
Prayer walk
Prayer walks are simple and can be very powerful. We recommend doing a prayer walk with someone else. The idea is simple. As you walk around a place, maybe your neighborhood, the University campus, a park, or another space, you pray! As you pray, some suggested focuses might be: that God would bring people in this neighborhood, campus or park to know him, that God would open doors for conversation, or for anything else on your mind!
Praying through a passage of scripture
Praying scripture is an incredible tool. A great place to start when it comes to praying scripture is the Psalms. The idea is simple. Take a psalm like Psalm 23 for instance. You will start off by reading the first verse and then taking a second to consider the main idea in that verse. Then, pray about that idea! It may be giving thanks to God for something, it may be pouring out your heart about a challenge you face, or something else. Whatever it is, pray about it. Then, do that with the next verse and continue doing that until you finish the psalm. A great resource on this is Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney.
10 Minute Prayer Challenge
The 10 Minute Prayer Challenge is a simple and yet difficult challenge. For 10 minutes, pray. That is all that it is. No phone, no music, for 10 minutes, pray. Talk to God, read scripture and pray scripture, go for a walk and pray! The main point of it is to challenge us to draw deeper and nearer to God and to spend time talking with God.
Suggested Supplemental Texts:
Praying the Bible- Donald S. Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines- Donald S. Whitney
The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down- R. Albert Mohler
If any of these books catch your attention, please feel free to contact the Church office and we can order copies for you and the person that you are discipling!