Genesis 24, especially v. 12-26

Isaac’s servant prayed for specific, miraculous help in finding a wife for Isaac, and God answers his prayer before he’d even finished praying!  Think and pray about that...

 

1 Samuel 1:1-12

Hannah prayed passionately—weeping incoherently—for a child.  She poured out

her heart to God and made a vow to dedicate the child to serving Him if He would only answer her prayer.  God gave her Samuel and she kept her vow.

 

1 Kings 8

Solomon dedicated the temple with extravagant sacrifices, a huge ceremony, and a

long, eloquent prayer.  He prayed with open eyes and raised hands.  (No one in scripture is ever described as praying with a bowed head, folded hands, or even with closed eyes.  If they bow, they kneel or fall on their faces.)

 

Matthew 6:5-15, Mark 1:29-29, Matthew 14, 26:36-46

Jesus had a very simple, direct approach to prayer.  Jesus often went off alone to pray before and after significant events happened.  Obviously, we should do what He did.

 

2 Samuel 24

Once, God stopped answering Israel’s prayers because David had sinned.  He made a point of repenting in a special place at a great personal cost.  Meditate on that, and do whatever God leads you to do.

 

Group Idea

• Consistently put your group in situations where God has a chance to answer specific prayers in dramatic ways.  Whenever you do service projects, food and clothes drives, etc., take notes on what God does to help.  It’s amazing what God does when His people ask Him to help them feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, etc.; He loves to answer prayers about things that are close to His heart!

 

Individual Ideas

• Talk to God while you drive.  When you pray, feel free to laugh, cry, shout, dance around, stand, kneel, bow—just really talk to Him, and do whatever it takes to do so.

• Spend some time both talking and listening to God for someone else.  Do the same

• thing as above, but leave yourself out of it!

• Risk asking specifically for things that only God can do in areas of your life that you know He cares about--and see what happens.  If nothing happens right away, seek answers as to why rather than just giving up.  Share your frustrations and revelations with God and your trusted Christian friends as you go.

• Spend some time talking out loud to God.  Make a point to thank Him specifically for the good things in your life, but also feel free to ask questions, beg for help, and otherwise deal with anything that’s keeping you from feeling joy.  The key, however, is to take time to LISTEN in between.  Do this deliberately and take it seriously; don’t just rattle off a little prayer!  Write down what comes to mind when you ask for answers and/or are just still and quiet for a moment.

• For a week, set aside some time every day to pray for someone who has hurt you somehow (see Matthew 5:43-48).  Pray that God will help you see that person as He sees him/her.  Pray that He will help you act (and even feel) like you love that person again.  God loves those kinds of prayers and always answers them (sometimes it does take a while, but not as long as you’d think).