What Happens When Women Pray? They Confess! Week Three Breakout Session One Discussion questions: Define these key words for this week. What is sin? What is repentance? How does repentance differ from merely confessing sin? As a group make a list of what we sometimes consider the little sins. Write out as many as time allows.
What Happens When Women Pray? They Confess! Week Three Lori McDonald Breakout Session Two Here are a few steps to take this morning as you pray. Spend time in praise and reflect on God s character. Allow these things to reveal areas where you struggle. Write out specific areas of sin. Being specific will help you isolate the issue. Be detailed! Nail it down! Do not overlook people that you have been unwilling to forgive. The model prayer mentions that He is to forgive us our debts, as forgive our debtor. Unforgiveness is sin! Use the verses on the page your are given as part of prayer. Fold the paper up We are going to tie our confession onto a balloon and then all go outside and let them go! This will be a great visual of letting those sins go. We are giving them to God. We want you to leave today feeling refreshed and no longer under the power of those sins. Do not allow yourself to take them back! Get into your homework this week and continue making confession a part of your prayer life. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 Create in me a clean heart. O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me to the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51 :10-11
Homework Week 3 Day One Confession week. I hope today finds you still feeling refreshed from letting go of the sin that God revealed to you. If you are feeling defeated today, remember that balloon leaving your hand. It is out of your hands, and into the hand s of God. Even if a sin that you confessed has resurfaced today, take heart and confess it. There are sins that we will confess over and over again. Don t grow weary! Persistence is key! Can you indentify that one area that has continually struggled with in your life? For me, I mentioned that I worry. Worry really means that I am not recognizing that God is faithful and I lack His peace. Whatever your area is, reflect on it and then find the characteristic of God that your sin contradicts. My sin contradicts God s faithfulness and peace. Write your contradiction in your journal. Spend some time finding a verse to combat your area of struggle. If you share mine, I am committing to memory : Philippians 4:4-7 (New International Version, 2010) Final Exhortations 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 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. Peace be with you today, sisters! God is in control and in that there is rest. Sin does not rule over you! Write in your journal today. Write a prayer out using praise and then confession. Just like we did in the sanctuary, allow God to reveal sins to you. Ask Him to search your heart! He will! Just be patient and don t rush through this time.
Day Two Homework Week Three Hebrews 12:1-3 (New International Version, 2010) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Last week we threw off the sin that had entangled us. It felt great, didn t it? I want you to notice something. We are to throw off everything that hinders us and leads to sin. If you struggle with overeating, you are to throw away junk food that could tempt you. I f you struggle with gossip, you may need to refrain from answering the phone when that friend calls and you know gossip is likely. f complaining is your struggle, throw those thoughts away, and replace them with praises. Throwing off is an action. It means we have to do something. Confession is an action, it takes effort on our part. These verses tell us to run, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Run to your prayer closet! Spend time praising Him, that is fixing your eyes on Him! Perseverance is key! God reminded us here that our journey with Him is a race. Keep going! Keep praying! If you have a bad day, and don t pray, may I remind you of the truth that brought this study to light. Prayerlessness is sin. Confess it and move on. Don t be entangled in letting sin build up and making you feel guilty. God is the perfecter of our faith, let Him have it. Give Him another balloon. Journal today about any struggles, that will require some action on your part. What things do you need to throw away? What actions will you take to remove whatever is entangling you?
Day Three Homework Week Three Hebrews 12: 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Are you beginning to think that prayer is a lot of work? Does the idea of going to your prayer closet require time that you just don t have to spare? I caught myself feeling like I did not have the time it would take to develop and maintain this type of prayer. I am busy! I have a job, family, and 2 ministries where I serve. I am serving the Lord, after all. Let me share with you what God spoke to my heart when I skipped a few days in my closet, because I chose not to fit it into my schedule. God reminded me again of why this study began.prayerlessness is sin! 1 Samuel 12:23 says failing to pray is sin. When I choose to go about my day, my busy day without praying, then I am sinning. Clear and simple! Not only is it sin because the Bible tells us to pray and pray without ceasing, but it is sin because I have placed myself above my God. You see sin is anything that contradicts God s Word, His character, or anything that we place as authority or as a greater desire than Him. On days that I choose to skip prayer, I have chosen to make myself and my plans more important than God. Time is not mine, it is not yours. It belongs to God. We have to stop viewing time as our own! This type of prayer is a discipline. It takes much training and persistence to develop. We have to keep pressing forward and confessing our shortcomings, our sin. Read the last part of this verse.. Discipline produces a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it. Righteousness is the result! Keep training! Tomorrow we will see the result of righteousness on our prayer life. Write in your journal today about your struggles with time and how you really view it. Is it your time? Do you skip prayer because you don t think you have enough of it? Tell Him your struggle. If God has convicted you, as He did me, then write out a prayer today praising Him for who He is, the creator of time, and then confess that you have tried to take ownership of something that is not yours.
Day Four Homework Week Three Last day of homework this week! Great job! James 5: 16b The prayer of a righteous man or woman is powerful and effective. Is that not great news? The book of James tells us that the end result of prayer can be effective and powerful. We all struggle through seasons where we feel our prayers are weak and not going anywhere. May I remind you that if you persevere through spiritual training, righteousness is the result. And this verse tells us that our prayers will then be effective! What a great promise! If you feel that in this season of your life you do not have an effective prayer life, then I encourage you to continue using the prayer model. Praise Him to get your eyes fixed on Him and off of yourself. Confess to Him the sins that can entangle you. Do it daily! Don t let anything come between you and God, not any little thing. Do not be deceived in thinking that it is ok to miss a day, because you were pretty good that day. Go back and look over our little sins list. Did any of those sins creep into your day? Know this, Satan does not want us to have effective prayer lives. He loves it when we feel frustrated and have allowed sin to build up between ourselves and God. He wants us to think it is no big deal, and He knows that if we continue to be stuck in a rut of prayerlessness, than we are not effective. So, run to your closet! Keep working! Get your journal out and reflect on this week of confession. Did anything new pierce your heart? Is your closet becoming a precious place to you, yet? No homework for tomorrow. You have a lot to reflect upon. Go back over the homework up to this point and just meditate on how your prayer life has changed so far, and ask God to continue to change and refine your prayer life. Remember to say, Lord, teach me to pray. For further reading go to Praying the Word of God and read the confession section on pages 66-93.