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Video - Meet the parents
Before we go out tonight I thought we could spend a moment or two taking to God by praying about things
It seems to me that there are a lot of people who find that a bit scary, perhaps even odd
I've got a clip from the film Meet the parents which shows how some of us feel about prayer...
[play from 22 mins from the start of the film (cut to front of house) - 24 mins “thank you Greg, that was interesting too”]
Now I bet we’ve all had times when we’ve felt like Greg…
Perhaps some of you feel like that when we pray at Pathfinders
Why do some people find praying hard?
What is praying?
Sort of like chatting to God, nothing more, nothing less
Would anybody admit to praying?
Praying is simply away of talking to God
It’s real important ‘cos God wants us to get to know him, and one of the best ways of doing that is by talking to him
The Bible says:
1 Thes 5:17 “Pray continually”
James 5:16 "Pray for each other"
Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you."
1 Tim 2:1 P1256 “…pray for all people, asking God for what they need and being thankful to him.”
James 5:16 P1300 "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen"
Just like in a conversation, God will talk back to you…
Now there are many different ways of praying…don’t have to use words, maybe it helps
So what I though we could do now is have a go…if don’t want to, just don’t worry
Set up 3 tables, each with a different way of praying
friends – map of Hunmanby. Take a piece of ribbon and a pin. Think of someone in the village, or maybe a place in the village that you would like to pray about. Write your prayer on the ribbon and using the pin, stick the prayer on the map
world – newspapers. Sometimes we find it hard to know what to pray about, so I’ve brought some newspapers to give you some ideas. If you find something you would like us to pray about, write a prayer on one of these stars or even just cut the head line out. Stick it on the wall. By doing that your drawing God’s attention to something you care about.
drawing – perhaps you’re the kind of person who find’s it easier to draw what you feel or want to pray about. That’s that the white board is for….ie, draw a picture of the world…
Luke 18:7-8 P1041 "God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him [in prayer] night and day, and he will not be slow to answer then. I tell you, God will help his people quickly…"
[Close by saying a prayer]
Copyright 1998-2004 Nigel Coates