New Believer’s Path · Lesson 2: Prayer · In Everything, by Prayer
This lesson in one sentence: Prayer is not a speech but talking to the Father; when words won’t come, the Spirit prays for us.
Timing (about 60 minutes)
- Opening5 min
- Read Together10 min
- A true story5 min
- Discussion25 min
- This Week10 min
- Pray for One Another5 min
Opening
Did you hear anyone pray when you were a child? What impression did it leave?
Read Together
In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6 · WEB
A true story (ask a group member to read it aloud)
In nineteenth-century England, a boy of about fifteen, at home alone with time on his hands, picked up a gospel tract, meaning to read only the story at the beginning. When he came to the words ‘The finished work of Christ’, he suddenly understood: salvation had already been completed, and all that was left for him was to receive it.
That same afternoon his mother, seventy or eighty miles away, shut her door and prayed for her son until at length she could pray no longer and was moved to praise. When she came home a fortnight later, he rushed to tell her the good news, but she put her arms around him and said, ‘I know, my boy; I have been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell me.’ Later he found that his sister had written in her diary that she would pray every day until her brother was converted—exactly one month earlier. That boy was Hudson Taylor, who later went to China as a missionary.
Source: Hudson Taylor, A Retrospect, chapter 1
Discussion
- Hudson Taylor’s mother and sister prayed for him for a long time. Is there someone you have long carried in your heart?
- “we don’t know how to pray as we ought” (Romans 8:26)—what is your biggest difficulty in prayer?
- When Jesus taught people to pray, the first words were “Our Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-13) What difference does it make to think of prayer as ‘talking to a father’?
This Week
Choose one thing on iPray and pray one sentence for it every day for seven days.
Each person names the ‘one thing’ they will carry on iPray this week; no details needed—‘something in my family’ is fine.
Closing
In pairs, pray one sentence for each other’s ‘one thing’.
Tips for the leader
- If someone feels they ‘pray badly’, tell them that one sentence is enough, and a sigh is a prayer too.
- When people share their ‘one thing’, respect their privacy: don’t probe for details, and don’t repeat it outside the group.
- The mother in the story ‘was moved to praise’ in the end; don’t present this as ‘prayer is always answered right away’. The point is that she brought her child before God.
General principles for leaders
- The leader is not a teacher but someone who walks alongside everyone.
- Give everyone a chance to speak; with someone who talks a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s also hear from friends who haven’t spoken yet.’
- Don’t rush to give answers. If someone is silent, wait a few more seconds.
- For a question you can’t answer, you can say, ‘I don’t know either; let’s look it up together,’ and note it down for next time.
- What is said in the group stays in the group.
- At the opening, the leader can give their own answer first, showing that it can be simple and honest.