Alicea

How can God receive more glory in your local congregation? How can you help this happen? God could receive more glory in our church in both ways, by more service and love to our fellow man and it more praise and adoration during our service. I can help make this happen by being more purposeful in prayer for the service and the service leader. I need to be more purposeful in prayer and fastings for the move of God to be present amoung us.

How should verse 3:20 of the doxology energize your prayers? What happens when we limit God by our own ability to comprehend? How can we get past this failing? It should energize our prayers because it means He is able to give us what we need even when we don't know what that is, His answer is not limited to our human minds and imaginations. When we limit God by our abilityl to comprehend we introduce doubt and our faith weakens. We can get past this failing by asking God to do it for us and in us, we are unable to do it on our own. We also get past this by getting to know God better which we do by study and reading His word, by fellowship and communion with other believers and by time spent in prayer and worship.

Have you ever prayed for a fellow believer that he or she might be "filled with all the fullness of God"? What would you be praying for with that kind of prayer? How does this prayer relate to Ephesians 5:27 and Colossians 1:28? I don't think I have in that express way, but I will now. Imagine it, for the shekinah glory to fill them!!!! I think I will also pray this for myself. We can only be complete in Christ when we are full of God.

Why does Paul pray that the believers grasp the fullest extent of Christ's love for them? How does comprehending this love change a person's spiritual life? Is there any end to Christ's love for a person? The more we understand Christ's love for us the more we love Him and others. As we comprehend this we grow in the spirit and in true humility. There is no end of Christ's love for each one of us, individually and corporately as His bride.

Why does Paul pray for strengthening of the inner man? How would we pray this prayer today? Why does he pray that Christ dwell in the believers' hearts? Isn't this already an established fact? He prays for strengthening in the inner man so that they could comprehend and experience Christ's love. He is praying that the believers will be strong in the Holy Spirit when Crhist dwells in their hearts. It is an established fact that Christ is there but as we grown in the spirit we have more of Christ, and hopefully less of ourselves. Our faith must be a living thing that continues to grow as we walk with Him.

Why is a revelation of "his incomparably great power for us who believe" essential to a vital faith? How do you develop this faith in yourself? How do you pray for it for others? If we don't have this revelation we feel powerless and our prayers will be lukewarm. We need to pray for this revelation to grip our souls and also for others.

What is the result in prayer and faith if believers think that God is poverty-stricken? How does knowledge of a "glorious inheritance" motivate our lives? Our prayers? How can you pray for others to glimpse this inheritance? If you don't think God has much you are not going to ask for much if anything at all. It motivates joy into our lives. fills our prayers with hope and faith. Once again, pray that the full love of God be revealed to them. As Paul said, the eyes of their understanding be enlightened. I pray that the Lord will reveal His word to them, if not me, then to send a servant who will have the words from God that they will be able to hear. I pray for the Lord to prepare their hearts to receive the seed of the word in good ground so that it will take deep root and grow.

How has your Christian "hope" changed your way of living? What is the result of Christians with only a meager or minute hope? How would you pray for hope to be borne in others? I have much more joy and peace in my life. For one with meager or minute hope the opposite is true, there is listlessness, apathy and sadness in their life. That they receive a revealtion of the magnitude of the love of Christ for each and every one of us.

What do you learn from Paul's manner of prayer for the Ephesian believers? If Christians stopped praying for people to receive a revelation of God, would people come to know God on their own? Would God work in them at all? How important is this kind of prayer? His prayer is specific and to the point and encompasses exactly what is needed; it shows genuine concern for who is praying for and that he has spent some time thinking through what is needed. Yes people would come to God on their own, people's salvation is due to work of Calvary not to our efforts on their behalf. I think our prayers help, spiritually, in their daily battle of life against the flesh and the enemy of our souls. This kind of prayer is very important because it shows concern and love for those we are called to serve.

Did Jesus get "special treatment" because he was the Son of God to have angels help and strengthen him in his spiritual struggle? Do we get that help, too? Getting help from an angel is special treatment but the bible records others getting special help from angels too. I think we do get it too, usually we are not aware of it.

When Jesus prayed "not my will, but yours be done," was the Father pleased? Why is the Father not pleased when we are passive and uncaring and dispassionate in our prayers that his will be done? What is required for us to pray the prayer of submission with authenticity? Yes the Father was pleased. We are created to have a reltionship with God, passivity is not a relationship. We must actually DESIRE Go's will not just want His permission.

Why did Jesus pray that the Father take the cup from him? According to Mark and Matthew, Jesus repeated this prayer three times. Why was he so intense about it? What did this mean? Why was Jesus resisting the Father's will? Or was he? He had a good idea of what was waiting for Him, the sins of the WHOLE WORLD waiting to crush Him. The utter suffering that awaited Him physical pain - the beatings - the crucifiction, the emotional pain- Judas' betrayal, Peter's denial and the spiritual - forsaken by God on the cross. He wasn't resisting the Father's will, I think he was dreading what awaited him and w maybe, the human part of him wasn't 100% sure that he would be able to bear it.

Why did he ask his disciples to pray? What temptation did Jesus know they would be facing? What was the content of their prayer to be? Did they actually pray this prayer diligently? How does the Lord's Prayer word this kind of prayer? Why do you think Jesus wanted to be alone during his own prayer? He asked his disciples to pray so they wouldn't fall into the temptation of denying Him. The content of their prayer was to be "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. They did not pray. I think Jesus wanted to be alone with his Father so he could concentrate completely on Him and what was at hand. What he was facing to do he would have to do on his own and he couldn't afford to get distracted by others or interupted or take time to answer their questions or to teach or minister to them.

In what way does Daniel's situation compared to Esther's. Why does God place his people in strategic positions today in the community, in business, in the military, in government? What responsibilities do we have to God that can cause danger to our positions and our lives? Has this ever happened to you? How do you pray They were both Jews in a foreign society and country living with idolatrous people who had power and rule over them. He places His people in their postions to bring about His will. To love Him with all our heart, mind and soul and obey Him even when it can cause us harm in some way. Never for my life but at times my lively hood. I pray the His will be made clear to me and to annoint my words as I speak. That I will speak His words and not my own.

What is the basis of Nehemiah's appeal? How does he argue his case before God? What do we learn from this about intercession? The basis of his appeal is God is a God of love who keeps His word to those who love Him and obey His commands. He argues his case by reminding God of His promises and by admitting sin. We need to do the same when we intercede.

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive? Because he is serious about his desire to see Jerusalem restored. He loves his people and he loves God. He wants his people back in Jerusalem where they can worship God. This effectual prayer by a righteous man. No it is not excessive, it is real.

What was Daniel's essential prayer? What are the various grounds of Daniel's appeal? How did God answer the prayer (see Daniel 9:20-23)? For mercy and forgivenss to the nation of Israel. He appeals to God based on God's character of Mercy.

Since Daniel is such a righteous man in his generation, why does he identify himself with the sins of his people? He didn't commitment them. How does this compare to how Jesus sought forgiveness for his people? He understands that he is part of the people. Jesus tookon our sin.

What is Daniel's demeanor as he prays? How does he prepare? Why is this so important in this case? In what ways might you and I prepare for intercession? Daniel takes on a humble repentant attitude. He prepares by fasting and putting on sackcloth as a sign of his repentant attitude. This was a very serious request Daniel was making, he was in earnest and he preparation demonstrated that. The same, searching our hearts before God, repenting and fasting.

What encourages Daniel to seek God for the forgiveness and restoration of Israel to its homeland? What trait on Daniel's part brings this encouragement to pass? Daniel studied the scriptures and believed them. He saw that it was close to the time when God would restore Jerusalem and believed the word of God.

Why is this prayer of surrender to God so difficult to pray? When was the first time you prayed this kind of prayer to God? What was the result? Can a person be a genuine disciple without praying this kind of prayer? Giving up control of oneself to someone else is very difficult to do. I was a young woman on my own in a big city where I knew no one when suddenly I realized that if I kept going on my own my destiny would be a disaster. I made major changes in the way I was living my life. No, a person cannot be a genuine disciple without having the attitude towards God that is expressed in this prayer.

How is an awareness of God's involvement in your prenatal development meant to encourage you? What might this mean to a young woman carrying a child? A young father-to-be? Why is such knowledge overwhelming to us It encourages me because it reminds of how intimately and completely God knows and loves me adn how specifically He has designed me to be myself. It would remind the parents that this is in fact a person being formed by the hand of God and must be loved and regarded as such. Such intimate, loving care for such an awesome, all powerful God is overwhelming but so very precious.

In verses 5 and 10, how does God's hand touch the psalmist? Have you ever felt God's hand on you in a special way? Was it for your good? What was it like? God lays His hand on David and leads him. Yes,I have. Yes it was always for my good or someone else's. It is very comforting and humbling.

Why do people sometimes want to flee from God? Why do people imagine that God doesn't know what they do? Have you ever felt this way? People sometimes flee from God because they don't want to submit to Him for various reasons, fear, rebellion etc. They imagine He doesn't know what they do because they do not keep Him in their thoughts or because they don't know enough about Him to know how fruitless that action would be. No I cannot recall ever feeling that way.

What is the basis on which Hezekiah asks for healing? Why is personal righteousness and holiness important in getting your prayers answered? How can unrighteousness prevent answered prayer if all gifts from God are by grace anyway? Hezekiah says, I have walked before You faithfully, with whole hearted devotion and done what was good in the eyes of the Lord. This is important because it shows a desire to be obedient to the Lord. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, if we are living we are not living a righteous life.