studies on prayer for small groups

not exactly sure how to blog this is all new to me . I am wanting to find some scripture based studies on prayer for small groups. feel that prayer and especially people gathering together for prayer is a forgotten part or our relationship with Christ--- by this I am speaking of the type of prayer where from our heart we cry out to God ----not for our needs but for the hurting people in the world and in our churches today. for things in our lives and in our world that relate to eternity not just the normal prayer requests in so many churches today of a safe journey for someone or that things will go good at work and other related requests---and these are okay also as we are to acknowledge God in eveything that He will direct our path-----prayer need not end there though that should just be an everyday part of our life---as should the crying out to God with anquish over what is taking place in the lives of so many christians and in so many churches today

My email addres is iamnorm@hotmail.com. I very much would like to do that, however the time frame may or maynot be a problem I have some people in mind that definitely are strong in their relationship with Christ and in prayer. I trust that if God does want me to do that He will open the doors and take care of any obstacles.The only reason I mention the time frame is that I just went to the church today to help get post cards ready and mail them on a bible study I am starting on June 22 on the bait of satan by John Revere it is a 12 week study. I am very involved with prayer in our church in the following ways; I do the church email prayer request at the first of the year I helped set up 10 nights of prayer to start off the new year and than in March I started doing sunday night prayer at the church. On thursdays I do what we call a come and go prayer from 11am--2pm. someone may come and stay for 5 min. or the entire time. The only reason I feel a need to share this with you is to let you know the passion that God has put on my heart for prayer and the burden that I feel is my gift on just being available for the hurting people in our church and not really just in our church but the hurting people He continually puts in my life both lost people and born again Christians from the community. The need I feel for doing bible studies on prayer is we have about 1000 people that call our church their home church we normally have between 500 and 600 each sunday but have the same problem most churches have with prayer attendance. The 10 nights at the beginning of the year were very well attended but sunday nights have been anywhere from one to maybe 20 at the most. The attendance seems to be better if we have a definite focus along with prayer time. So the reason I am looking for good prayer bible studies is I have approached the church leadership about maybe having prayer as our fall focus and they are open to it. So I felt I needed to give you a little background on what I am doing so that you would understand. When I read your information I didn't even hesitate on whether I would be interested or not I feel it is another answer to prayer and I would love to do it. I would need a little time to talk to the people I have in mind they are all very strong prayer warriors.I feel getting 6 people together would not be a problem. The possibility of doing it on sunday night either before or afer our regular prayer time would be what I would try for . There are a few people from other church's that I think might come also. The name of my church is New Hope Wesleyan I need to share a couple more things with you so you will realize I m not neglecting my wife and family by being so involved. I lost my wife of 38 years to cancer on May 4th of 2009. She went to the doctor on March 20 (thankfully she hadasked me to go with her and I was able to) for a routine office call so we thought. There had been no red flags of any kind and as the doctor started asking questins he just kept commenting that she didn't look sick but he was bound and determined to find out what was wrong. We went in at 9 in the morning and he ran al kinds of tests cat scans and more and about 5:30 that evening he was done and the diagnoses was that she had an advance stage of colan cancer and it had gone into the liver 6 weeks later she went home to be with the Lord. We had the whole family together that night to tell them , our kids ,their spouses and our grandkids and we told them and than my wife told them she was going to focus on living not on dying. She also said that if her cancer brought someone closer to the Lord or into a relationship with Christ than it was worth it , The next day at work God told me that He had prepared my family and I for such a time as this and I had no doubt that it was Him telling me that because it is a pharse that is not me. He had truly prepared us because He gave all of us the peace that passes all understanding and the inner stedfastness that nly He can give. Anytime I would feel like I was falling apart onthe outside it was just like He would wrap His arms around me turn my head to focus on Him and overflow me with His joy and peace. Once I start what He did through all of that it is hard to stop we serve such a marvelous and loving God that is alive and active in the world today.My wifes pray was answered about people getting to know Him through her cancer I have not gotten up one day since her diagnoses trying to figure out who I should share Jesus with but God has given me the opportunity to share Him with 100's and 100's of people since the day she was diagnosed and not one of them was planned. Our kids are all grown and out of the house,I work part time so if I am not home and out doing something I am not ignoring family. Two of our kids and 7 of our grandchildren are here in town and I do see them a lot. So anyway never planned on writing so much , but I really felt you needed to know what I shared. Going to tell you one more ansewered prayer on why I started doing the church email prayer program. I was talking to God one day in prayer and told Him I would like to get more involved with prayer with our church but only if it was what He wanted me to do . Aboout 2 days later the sr. pastors wive emailed and asked me how I would like to take over the email prayer duties. She was doing it and just not having the time to give it she felt was needed . My first thought was to write her back and tell her I would pray about it and than it is like God hit me over the head and said you already did. So I mailed her and said yes and that has led to all the other opportunities for prayer in the church. God has answered so many prayers and given me everything I have needed to either get through what was happening or prepared for what was coming up . I could go on forever on just the different miracles and answered prayers for just the past year but Ithink it is time to quit. hope to hear from you on the Bible study. With Love In Christ Jesus Norm

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Jonathan Graf June 16, 2010 15:29

I am going to have prayershop put in a free copy of I Love to Pray with your order. That is the children's version of Love to Pray. Enjoy.
Norm Haase June 16, 2010 15:23

thank you Jonathan fo the info on prayer - ordered the forty days of prayer kit - Norm
Jonathan Graf June 15, 2010 10:41

Norm:

If you are talking about attempting to do something as an all-church emphasis in the fall, the best book, bar none, is Love to Pray. It is a 40-day devotional that also has surrounding products that can put the book into an all-church prayer initiative. There are study guides and DVDs for Sunday school class or small group use, suggested sermon outlines to go along with it, etc. There is even a children's version (for 8 to12 year-olds) called I Love to Pray, so the entire church can participate. Churches that use this product are seeing lives changed and a renewed passion for prayer in many who participate. Go to prayershop.org and click on 40 Days of Prayer for more information.
Norm Haase June 14, 2010 22:41

My email addres is iamnorm@hotmail.com. I very much would like to do that, however the time frame may or maynot be a problem I have some people in mind that definitely are strong in their relationship with Christ and in prayer. I trust that if God does want me to do that He will open the doors and take care of any obstacles.The only reason I mention the time frame is that I just went to the church today to help get post cards ready and mail them on a bible study I am starting on June 22 on the bait of satan by John Revere it is a 12 week study. I am very involved with prayer in our church in the following ways; I do the church email prayer request at the first of the year I helped set up 10 nights of prayer to start off the new year and than in March I started doing sunday night prayer at the church. On thursdays I do what we call a come and go prayer from 11am--2pm. someone may come and stay for 5 min. or the entire time. The only reason I feel a need to share this with you is to let you know the passion that God has put on my heart for prayer and the burden that I feel is my gift on just being available for the hurting people in our church and not really just in our church but the hurting people He continually puts in my life both lost people and born again Christians from the community. The need I feel for doing bible studies on prayer is we have about 1000 people that call our church their home church we normally have between 500 and 600 each sunday but have the same problem most churches have with prayer attendance. The 10 nights at the beginning of the year were very well attended but sunday nights have been anywhere from one to maybe 20 at the most. The attendance seems to be better if we have a definite focus along with prayer time. So the reason I am looking for good prayer bible studies is I have approached the church leadership about maybe having prayer as our fall focus and they are open to it. So I felt I needed to give you a little background on what I am doing so that you would understand. When I read your information I didn't even hesitate on whether I would be interested or not I feel it is another answer to prayer and I would love to do it. I would need a little time to talk to the people I have in mind they are all very strong prayer warriors.I feel getting 6 people together would not be a problem. The possibility of doing it on sunday night either before or afer our regular prayer time would be what I would try for . There are a few people from other church's that I think might come also. The name of my church is New Hope Wesleyan I need to share a couple more things with you so you will realize I m not neglecting my wife and family by being so involved. I lost my wife of 38 years to cancer on May 4th of 2009. She went to the doctor on March 20 (thankfully she hadasked me to go with her and I was able to) for a routine office call so we thought. There had been no red flags of any kind and as the doctor started asking questins he just kept commenting that she didn't look sick but he was bound and determined to find out what was wrong. We went in at 9 in the morning and he ran al kinds of tests cat scans and more and about 5:30 that evening he was done and the diagnoses was that she had an advance stage of colan cancer and it had gone into the liver 6 weeks later she went home to be with the Lord. We had the whole family together that night to tell them , our kids ,their spouses and our grandkids and we told them and than my wife told them she was going to focus on living not on dying. She also said that if her cancer brought someone closer to the Lord or into a relationship with Christ than it was worth it , The next day at work God told me that He had prepared my family and I for such a time as this and I had no doubt that it was Him telling me that because it is a pharse that is not me. He had truly prepared us because He gave all of us the peace that passes all understanding and the inner stedfastness that nly He can give. Anytime I would feel like I was falling apart onthe outside it was just like He would wrap His arms around me turn my head to focus on Him and overflow me with His joy and peace. Once I start what He did through all of that it is hard to stop we serve such a marvelous and loving God that is alive and active in the world today.My wifes pray was answered about people getting to know Him through her cancer I have not gotten up one day since her diagnoses trying to figure out who I should share Jesus with but God has given me the opportunity to share Him with 100's and 100's of people since the day she was diagnosed and not one of them was planned. Our kids are all grown and out of the house,I work part time so if I am not home and out doing something I am not ignoring family. Two of our kids and 7 of our grandchildren are here in town and I do see them a lot. So anyway never planned on writing so much , but I really felt you needed to know what I shared. Going to tell you one more ansewered prayer on why I started doing the church email prayer program. I was talking to God one day in prayer and told Him I would like to get more involved with prayer with our church but only if it was what He wanted me to do . Aboout 2 days later the sr. pastors wive emailed and asked me how I would like to take over the email prayer duties. She was doing it and just not having the time to give it she felt was needed . My first thought was to write her back and tell her I would pray about it and than it is like God hit me over the head and said you already did. So I mailed her and said yes and that has led to all the other opportunities for prayer in the church. God has answered so many prayers and given me everything I have needed to either get through what was happening or prepared for what was coming up . I could go on forever on just the different miracles and answered prayers for just the past year but Ithink it is time to quit. hope to hear from you on the Bible study. With Love In Christ Jesus Norm
Cynthia Bezek June 14, 2010 14:36

Norm, could you please give me your email address and I can send you more information? When you do that, please tell me what kind of group you might be able to pull together for a six-week study beginning SOON--somewhere between June 16 and 22? Thanks!
Norm Haase June 14, 2010 13:20

I am not sure if I am responding in the right way I am rather a novice at about anything beyound emailing. Yes Cynthia I would definitely be interested. I feel prayer is where it all begins yet it seems to be the first thing to be put aside in the church and I am speaking of the prayer where we really cry out to God. Thanks Norm
Cynthia Bezek June 14, 2010 11:03

Norm,

NavPress (who published Pray! magazine before it went out of print in May 2009) is currently piloting a series of Bible studies on prayer that I am writing. (I was the former editor of Pray!). We are just getting ready to launch a pilot of the second study this week on the character of God and prayer. Do you have a group that you'd like to pilot the study with? It's six weeks. we'd send you the material, you'd lead a group and then all you'd have to do is give us feedback to make the study even better before we publish it. Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in. We just finished a pilot on Prayer as Relationship with God with excellent response.
Corbie Cross June 14, 2010 0:55

I forgot to mention a set of books that has helped me personally by Ken Boa at www.kenboa.org
his handbook to prayer has helped me develop a more regular prayer life using the scriptures.
the handbook to prayer and the handbook of renewal are both excellent resources. the handbook to prayer helps a person use scripture as a guide for prayer. I am using this during our congregational prayers to help our congregation learn how to use scripture to guide their prayers
Norm Haase June 13, 2010 21:53

Thanks to both Jonahan and Corbie for your info
Jonathan Graf June 13, 2010 20:48

I would recommend any of the following:

Power Praying by David Chotka
Love to Pray by Alvin VanderGriend
Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Fred Hartley
The Prayer Factor by Sammy Tippit

You can find all of them at prayershop.org.

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