8. Prayer that Moves God

FLASHBACK

What did you experience with God this week?
In the last few days, did you have the opportunity to share an experience with God with someone close to you that doesn’t know Jesus yet? Or could you pray for them or help them practically?
Do you need God‘s help in an area of your life?

■ Pray together: Give thanks for your experiences, ask God for help where you need it.

■ Pray together to learn new things about God and that your relationship with God deepens and gets stronger.

BIBLE STUDY

Read the passage silently. What words or phrases stick out?
One person reads the passage out loud.
One person retells the passage in his/her own words (Bibles closed).
If necessary, the others complement what was said (Bibles closed).

Luke 11:5-13

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

⁹“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Everyone by themselves:
- What words or phrases stick out now? Are there any differences to what you noticed before?
- Why do you feel drawn to those words or phrases?
- What can you learn about people?
- What could God be telling you?
Share in the group.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS & ACTION STEPS

Are there any limits to the promise our heavenly Father gives us concerning answering prayers (see James 1:5-6; 4:3 and Hebrews 11:6)?

■ Write down a personal prayer request and bring it to the Father in a prayer (everyone do this for themselves).

■ List the names of five people you want to pray for to be saved. As a praying aid, you could, for example, write the list on a Post-It note and put it on the refrigerator or your bathroom mirror; write it on a bookmark; set an alarm or reminder on your smartphone; and so on.

■ Read aloud Colossians 4:3. Build groups of two to three and pray for open doors at your institute to talk about faith and to share the gospel. Pray for your non-Christian friends: pray for possibilities to share with them your experiences with Jesus and for possibilities to pray with them so that they can experience God for themselves.

■ Think about starting to meet in groups of two or three to pray for your friends and your university.

SCRIPTURE COMMENTS

One Saturday morning, Bill Bright was alone on his knees in his office, praying for an urgent need the ministry had over $485. He heard a knock at the door; it was the postman, carrying a registered letter.
“It’s a good thing you were here,” the postman said, “or I wouldn’t have been able to leave this letter.”

Bill signed for it and went back into his office where, “while I was praying, God suggested I open the letter”. Inside he found $500 sent from Zurich, Switzerland, by a couple whose entire family had become Christians through Bill’s ministry when they were in California. They wrote that they simply wanted to express their appreciation for what God was doing in and through their lives as a result of Bill’s ministry. The $485 need was met.

From: Amazing Faith, The authorized Biography of Bill Bright, by Michael Richardson, 2000, Page 105.

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