Housegroups 

Deepening our Prayer Life
On March 1st we begin a new teaching series on ‘Prayer’ we will look at various ways of praying, some familiar and some perhaps unfamiliar. I am sure in your house groups that you are faithful to intercessory prayer and this is good, to pray for each other and see answers to prayer requests, as well as pastorally walking alongside with your group, through tough times.

In this series we will be looking at other ways of deepening our prayer lives, looking at scripture and also encouraging each other put into practice the ways suggested. It was a fifteenth century Saint that made this comment, which still resonates truth today.

You will never love someone unless you know them, but you will never really know them unless you love them.” If you wish to go deeper into the spiritual life, therefore, you have to learn first of all how to come to know and love Christ. The more you come to know him, then the more you will come to love him’

It would seem to me that in order for us to deepen our prayer life and therefore our relationship with God; that we need to create a rhythm and spend time living that rhythm. In Romans 12 v.12 we are asked to be faithful in prayer, so we hope that by spending time with some clear guidelines, that you might come to find new and inspiring ways to pray and that it will truly help us all to know God’s perfect love for us as we open ourselves up to Him more fully.

Here’s what we will be looking at:
February 26th at our ‘Ashing Service’ we will look at Lamenting in Psalm 5 & 6

Lamenting: This way of praying was common in the OT, the book of Job being perhaps one of the most well-known examples. The questions to ask ourselves are: Have we lost the art of Lamenting? Does it seem wrong to cry out to God in moments of extreme pain and suffering and ask why? Lament does more than simply express a feeling, Lament is a prayer of distress to God. Although we are not producing a resource for this type of prayer, you might like to ask your group these three questions:
Where do you need to lament today? Where does Jesus meet your need? Do you believe that God hears your lament?


March 1st ‘Pathway’ letting go and being fully immersed in prayer in Ezekiel 47 v.1-12

Pathway: As we begin to start a rhythm with our prayer lives, we will soon notice that we begin in the shallows, it might even be hard to keep focussed as we allow the distractions in our lives to close in. However, if we are persist and become fully immersed, then we need to start somewhere and in the shallows is a good place! Consider practising being still and listening, growing that love of God through scripture and sitting or walking. It might be that you feel nothing is happening, but do not give up, the more you become obedient to the practice, the deeper you will move into prayer. This is not about praying for others but allowing God to shape you, as I read recently, we so often assume that what is on the outside is all that matters, whereas what is really important is what is going on, on the inside.

March 8th ‘Rhythm’ looking at a ‘Rule of life’ in Psalm 55 v. 16-23

Rhythm: Most of us will have some kind of ‘rule’ – a set of practices or habits they return to each day, even if these have never been articulated as a ‘rule’. Indeed, without a rhythm and structure to daily life, it is hard to sustain a coherent sense of identity. Many writers have suggested that all followers of Christ can benefit from articulating and setting down a rule of life, a particular framework that many have found worth engaging with. A helpful image for a rule of life is that of a trellis for a vine. Just as a vine needs pruning and supporting in order to grow upward and bear fruit, so our lives need pruning and supporting by a rule. In fact, just as grapevines in the wild will seek out a structure, a tree or a rock, as a trellis, so we too all tend to seek out frameworks for living.
March 15th ‘Thanksgiving’ in Colossians 4 v.2

Thanksgiving: It’s so important that we bring our praise and thanksgiving to God each day, we are all blessed in may varied ways and it can be so easy to become complacent and comfortable about what we have been given. There are many scriptures about praising God both in the OT and NT but how often do we incorporate this into our prayer? We can often confuse this prayer with musical worship but there are ways that we can praise and thank God as we speak and as we are silent. Try to sit and see how this might be done within your group setting and commit to using it each week after the study is past.

 
March 22nd ‘Alive’ in 1 Samuel 3 v.1-21

Alive: This week we will particularly look at and practice listening to God and becoming fully alive in our prayer lives. It is a gift to offer a listening ear to another, how much more does God long for us to stop what we are doing and simply listen. It can be hard if we feel we don’t sense anything, but don’t give up, as one writer says ‘God is nearer to us than breathing’ we don’t always feel it but trust it and change will happen. Becoming ‘Alive’ in prayer takes us to allow God to transform us, how we live and act will say a lot about how we approach God in prayer. The habit of kindness thrives on practise and so it’s not that surprising that we need to be faithful in our prayer lives and get out of the rut that we sometimes fall into, through circumstance or season of life. Re-igniting our prayer lives to be ‘Alive’ will only happen if we want it to!

 
March 29th ‘Interceding’ for the nations in Esther 4

Interceding: Each one of us is called to intercede for others, these prayers are directed to God, who is all-knowing and yet we reach up to God through prayer and ask him to answer us. Throughout the bible many great leaders like Moses intercede for God’s people, he asked with boldness and urgency. Timothy prayers include urging people to offer up to God all that they need. So, interceding can be personal but importantly it can be for nations, our world and as Christians, it’s important to keep asking God for miracles, even though we might not understand why or how. What intercession is not, is a sermon, a letter or indeed a list of personal agendas. As with all prayer our hearts need to be humble and focussed on what we sense we need to pray for.
 
  


Sharon Seal, 17/02/2020