Lesson One: Class Purpose, Foundation, and Prayer Basics
1. Take time to review this lesson, and as you pray, Make notes for yourselves where you are in your prayer. Ask yourself what motivated you to make prayer a focus in your life. If prayer is an act of God’s Love, does that have an impact on your focus? Let these be a type of reflective notes that will help you as we progress through the course.
If God has set two commandments before us to live by, which represent a fundamental principle of our faith, how should those two commandments affect our prayers? See Matt 22:36-40.
Now--consider God’s Love. Why would the foundation or prayer be God’s Love?
If God’s love is not a motivating our prayers what is????
2. When Christ draws people to himself—What is he really doing and communicating to those people. Now, consider prayer and in your own words, describe how prayer and relationship connect.
SCROLL for additional content: Commentary ~ Resources~ Replies ~
this is a very helpful course i think, it will help me to focus much more. here are my reflections for lesson 1:
motivation to pray, initially, for me, was a necessity and sometimes a duty/chore, but mostly necessity- as god prompted. if prayer is an act of god's love, i guess it changes my focus to one of loving god back and communicating more with him.
mt 22: 36-40 should impact my prayers - loving god and my neighbour - so i should be praying out of a heart full of love for god and those i'm in relationship with.
the foundation of prayer is god's love because from there we can better experience god's heart for that which we pray. without that foundation, our words would be self motivated... selfish... empty.
when christ draws people to himself, he is actually communicating his love for them.
prayer without relationship is just self motivated words going into the ether.
prayer with relationship is motivated by an understanding of that relaionship.
relationship with god & my neighbour gives fresh insight into HOW & WHAT to pray what is on god's heart for those that god & i together care about.
Angela,
Your reflections show good insight. When we focus on God's love, it allows His heart of love to work in our hearts. That love helps us pray for others.
Blessings
Thank you.
Lewis Turner said:
Linda-You brought up a good question--and the answer to provide a link is the easiest solution. I appreciate you help and identifying something that helps! --I placed the link in a comment for everyone. If you have trouble finding it please let me know. It should work, and thanks for the suggestion!!!
Linda Fegins said:
For those working the reflection questions on the Praying Together Course--Here is the link to Lesson 1.
Lesson 1--http://www.praynetwork.org/group/prayingtogethercourse/forum/topics...
Thanks Linda for suggesting it--!!!!! --I will be adding the link to each lesson's reflection questions--Hope that make things easier and helps everyone as we move forward.
how do I get to the lesson and not just the discussion?
Some students joined the course during the middle of it, and others joined just recently. I have been searching for ways to help those students systematically work through the course. Reading is good, but actually working reflection questions and studying the material is the best way to benefit from the course.
What I have decided to do, is about twice a month, post reflection questions for each lesson, starting with lesson one, then about two weeks later post reflection questions from lesson 2, and follow that pattern with the remaining lessons. I hope it will help some who have tried to work the course on their own. I am really pleased in the interest in the course, and have personally seen people grow in the Lord and in their prayer life. By posting these reflection questions, it is my prayer that they will be a help to you in completing the course.
Please, take the time to share your thoughts to the reflection questions. It really does help a person to retain what they have studied, and to grow in the Lord. --For those whom I have evidence of completing the course, at the end of posting these reflection questions, I can send you the same certificate that we provided recently to some in the first group. I had a student in a class that I taught using this course in class room instruction, share with me that receiving the certificate, raised in his mind, the level of training he had received.
Much work has gone into this course, and my desire is that it will be a help to you, in your Prayer Life and Christian Walk. May the Lord work in our hearts as we move forward in working the course.
One more thing--You may also see a few other classes also posted in addition to the 'Praying-Together Course'. Hopefully by July, I will be posting a class on 'Praying for Your Government'. Then I will be posting some classes that can help you in teaching children to pray, then we will have a few classes on praying for you children and Grand-Children. This are separate from the 'Praying-Together Course.' - But they are important classes. Keep them in mind as extras as we move forward. For those who have not completed the 'Praying-Together Course, I do want you to stay focused on it and accept these additional lessons as --helpful-- lessons in praying for our government and children.
This will certainly be a rich time of study.