Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16, New International Version)
Theme: Discipleship
Context:
Today is dedicated to reviewing what we have learned over the past five days. This week we continued our focus on disciples of Jesus praying passionately. We looked at disciples of Jesus over two millennia who were/are passionate about prayer. A summary of the lessons we learned from the disciples follows:
- From the 4th Century AD, Saint Augustine teaches us about faith and prayer;
- From the Middle Ages, Saint Anselm teaches us about seeking and finding God in prayer;
- From the Early Modern era, Martin Luther teaches us about confidence in prayer;
- From the Modern era, Horatio Spafford teaches us about praying in our darkest hours;
- From our era, Rowan Williams teaches us about praying with expectancy.
We certainly benefit from having a “great cloud of witnesses,” and we also benefit from the excellent commentary throughout the week. Please consider catching up on any comments you may have missed.
Question:
As you reflect on the lessons from the selected disciples of Jesus, what lesson(s) resonated the most with you?
Please leave a comment. We would love to hear from you.
March 16, 2024 at 7:44 am
Day 25, confidence in prayer resonates the most with me. With so much that is going on in my life right now, I keep a version of this verse at the beginning of the lesson, as a reminder.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Sometimes I repeat, “Joseth, just pray and leave everything to God” to prevent myself from worrying about what’s going on.
It is a blessing to be able to leave my worries in the hands of God.
March 16, 2024 at 9:58 am
Amen! that’s my go-to verse too @ Joseth
Expectancy in prayer resonated with me. It reminded that the Bible encourages believers to expect good things from God.
Psalm 62:5 KJV: My soul waits only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.
Proverbs 23:18 ESV Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off.
I sometimes forget these promises when my expectations are not met. But I am learning that human expectations can be problematic therefore the fault lies with my expectations not the promises of God. Sometimes my expectation is based on false premise due to misreading the evidence because of flaws in my logic or making incorrect assumptions due to bias of hope and desire. This week’s lesson helped me reflect on God’s promises to the faithful and juxtapose that against my own way of thinking, providing clarity and light. Praise be to God!
March 17, 2024 at 8:49 pm
Faith and prayer resonate with me. My faith weakens when a situation does not seem to be resolved or when the way forward is not clear, even after years. I need to always have strong faith.