Session#1 on Prayer
1. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into continuous communion with the Father.
2. Real prayer is life creating and life changing.
3. To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.
a. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.
4. James 4:3- “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
a. To ask “rightly” involves transformed passions. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills
5. All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives.
a. Gospel of Mark has a commentary on the life-style of Jesus- “And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely, and there he prayed.”
b. Martin Luther- “I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.”
6. Prayer must not just be a part of my day, but it must be my life.
7. Prayer requires a learning process.
a. Luke 11:1 the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.
b. They had prayed all their lives, and yet something about the quality and quantity of Jesus’ praying caused them to see how little they knew about prayer.
