I posted about prayer at the beginning of the month. It seemed to strike a chord with the youth on the retreat. I have continued to think about prayer throughout the month. Do I pray enough, and more importantly, do I pray for the right things. Am I in prayer not just to make requests or praises for answered requests, but am I praising God in my prayers. Do I glorify God in my prayers. Last night at our youth group, we spent the entire time in our small groups sharing prayer requests and praying through scripture.
It was great to hear the way praying scripture changed the youths prayer. It caused their prayer to move beyond the typical prayer request prayer, "Lord, help Bobby's dad to make it home safely." Their prayers for the requests went much deeper, and their prayer for themselves and the youth group were much deeper. I was encouraged and blessed by our time in prayer.
I think my application I plan to take away from 1 Thessalonians is to try and make corporate prayer a higher priority in our youth group and to help the youth improve the quality of their prayers.
3 comments:
I was moved by how some of the youth said praying through scripture changed their prayer life. Some even expressed a fear of prayer because they weren't sure how to do it, but teaching them to pray through scripture gave them a sense of comfort in praying because they knew they were praying for the right things and in the right way. Being new to praying through scripture, it sure changed mine.
It was new for me as well. It is neat to approach scripture from that perspective.
How did your group do Tom?
My group went very well, I was a little nervous since praying through scripture was new to me. The youth put allot of thought into the passages and you could really see God's word shaping their prayers.
The group was a little hesitant about the prayer requests, so I Voluntold them each to come up with a request.
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