Meeting with God Bible Study

1. How do you get to know someone well?

Read Mark 1:32-38; Luke 6:12-13; Matthew 26:36-46

2. When and where did Jesus pray?

3. What situations prompted Jesus to spend extended times in prayer?

4. What happened after Jesus met with the Father in these instances?

Read John 14:13-14, 15:7-8

5. To whom should we pray?  Why?

6. Why don't we pray? (Note: "To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic in our lives." - Celebration of Discipline)

Read Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 18:10-14 and the following verses:

• Hebrews 5:7- During the days of Jesus' life on earth he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

• James 4:2-3- You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
   
• Ephesians 6:18- And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
   

7. What should be our attitude and focus as we approach God?

8. Why does God sometimes not answer our prayers as we asked?

9. What are some Biblical examples of how we should pray?

Read Psalm 1:1-2; Romans 8:26-27, and the following verse:

• I Thessalonians 5:16-18- Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

10. How often should we meet with God? What does that mean? (Note: "There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scences, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings." - Thomas Kelly)

11. Should we still meet with God when we do not know what to say? Why or why not?

12. What can we do to make it easier to meet with God? How can we become better pray-ers?

Final Notes

• "Prayer is to religion what original research is to science." - P. T. Forsythe
• Jesus' prays for himself, the disciples, and all believers in John 17.
• The relation between prayer and the Holy Spirit is also discussed in 1 Corinthians 14:14-16 and Jude 20. Thus, prayer is presented to the Father, in the name of the Son, through the inspiration of the indwelling Holy Spirit.