The Disciple's Prayer

Using the Lord's Prayer to deepen small-group prayer times

"How should we pray?" This is the question the disciples asked Christ. In truth, not having the answer to this question keeps many people from developing rich prayer lives. Most people want to believe prayer works, but they have no idea where to start. So when the need to pray arises, they offer up a skeptical but desperate plea for God to fix whatever is broken in their lives. This lack of confidence in prayer can enter our small-group prayer times as well. The affected small group usually follows a mundane prayer routine week after week with little to no variance. Of course, the solution here is not a secret set of letters and symbols that will crack the prayer code to give you access to God's "yes" box.

How did Jesus respond when the disciples asked how to pray? While their question is recorded in Luke's account (Luke 11:1), the full response Christ gives is recorded in Matthew 6:1-15. We refer to this famous passage as the Lord's Prayer, though it would be far more accurate to call it the Disciple's Prayer since this is Jesus' prescription for his followers' prayer lives. A walk through this passage will unleash your small group to begin praying with confidence in the way God designed prayer to be practiced. To read more, click here.