CHAPTER 5

Your Prayers Have Power

  1.   What role has prayer played in your life over the years—as a child, as an adolescent, as a young adult, and today? Has your prayer life changed, or have your thoughts about prayer changed? If so, how and why?

  2.   Early in this chapter Max recounts the story of Elijah in 1 Kings. Read 1 Kings 17:1–7 and 18:20–40.

       •   How long did the prophets of Baal call on their god for fire (vv. 25–29)?

       •   What excuses did Elijah give for Baal’s silence (v. 27)?

       •   Why did Elijah drench the altar with water (vv. 33–35)?

       •   How long did it take God to respond to Elijah’s prayer for fire (vv. 36–38)?

       •   Why did Elijah want God to perform this sign (vv. 36–37)?

  3.   Most likely you’ve never seen God send fire to the earth in response to one of your prayers, but have you ever seen God directly answer one of your prayers in a miraculous way?

       •   If so, how did that affect the way you view God?

       •   How did that affect your prayer life?

       •   If not, how has a lack of answered prayers affected the way you view God?

       •   How has it affected your prayer life?

  4.   James 5:16 says, “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (NCV). Is it easy for you to believe this, or are you skeptical of the power of prayer? Why?

  5.   God doesn’t always answer our prayers on our time line or in the way we want him to answer them. This can cause us to grow skeptical of prayer or feel as if God is distant and doesn’t care.

       •   What prayer have you been praying that God has not answered yet?

       •   How does this unanswered prayer affect the way you view God?

       •   Why do you think God hasn’t answered this prayer yet?

       •   How do you reconcile verses like James 5:16 with not-yet-answered prayers?

  6.   Fill in the blank: Max says that God cares about our prayers because we are God’s [Your Notes].

  7.   When you pray, do you see God as your father and yourself as his child? If not, how do you picture him when you speak to him?

  8.   How does viewing God as your father affect the way you view unanswered prayers? Why does God sometimes say no? Why does he remain silent sometimes?

  9.   If great things happen when a believing person prays, we should be praying about every area of our lives. What have you not prayed about that you need to take to God? How could prayer help the situation?

10.   This chapter includes a story about a Christian named Dmitri who was imprisoned in Russia during the communist era. He was in prison for seventeen years, yet he still worshipped God, and he still prayed. What would seventeen years of prison do to your faith and your prayer life? How can you find encouragement from Dmitri’s story?

11.   Read Matthew 18:19. What does this passage say about prayer and community? How often do you pray with others? How could you incorporate communal prayer into your life?

12.   Do you know someone who has a rich prayer life? How has his or her example influenced your own approach to prayer? What have you learned from observing a strong prayer warrior?

13.   Since you are a Person of the Promise, what kind of prayer life do you hope to have? What steps toward that goal could you start taking today?