Every...day Discussion Questions

What are you asking/begging God for that is so huge, so risky, so scary that it honors His power and majesty?

As a group leader, you'll want, as always, to be creating an occasion for life change. Begin your discussion time by breaking the ice, but make sure and spend much time allowing each member to share the faith rattling, daring requests that they will begin putting openly before God and their group. You may want to contact them, at least via email, ahead of time to tell them to begin thinking of just what it is that they will would be willing to share.

 

Thaw

-What's something you bugged your parents for as a kid, that after a long time, you finally got?

-Do you remember something you prayed for as a child?

-What examples of answered prayer have you experienced?

  

Read

Luke 11:1-13

-What's something that you are surprised or stumped by?

-Are there any insights from the message on Sunday that jumped out at you?

-Does verse 10 seem realistic or not? Explain? How might we have misunderstood this promise? How might we have covered or apologized for it?

-Verse 13 assumes we know how to give good gifts to our children? What are examples of bad gifts to kids, and what makes them bad?

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Leader’s note: A few things to note here are one, the use of the word "evil". In greek, it is πονηρός 'poneros' and means sickened, blind or in bad condition, in the physical sense as well as in the behavioral. Jesus is contrasting us with The Father, which makes us all look sick! Additionally, this question is meant to get the group realizing that a child getting everything she asks (prays) for would be the mark of a bad parent. That would be very bad for the child. But if we, flawed as we are, know that- how much more does God know how to give us what we really need. You may also try and uncover as a group the fact that what we so desperately want may in fact be bad. Our desperation being responded to by God with a "no" or perceived silence seems so hurtful, but parents know that crying doesn't change what's really necessary. 

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-Is it possible that the majority of what we request out of a sense of need is actually bad for us and those we do life with? Is it possible we don't even know what we want, let alone need?

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Leaders note: You may share examples as a group of things God seems to be silent on in terms of what's being asked for, and, depending on the trust level you sense exists- share as a group that that request is actually out of selfishness, self-interest, consumption, excess, or ways that isolate and broaden gaps between people. These things are repeatedly spoken against by Jesus. Are there things we pray to God for that aren't "in His name" (or "in accordance with His reputation") that actually go against, in even subtle ways, his desire for the world?

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Apply

Take a large sheet of paper and put the names of each group member on it, with the date. Go around the room and allow each member to share something huge that, despite the risk and the inability to make it work on paper- they sense they need to start "banging on the door" about. Finish the evening on this exercise, and communicate to the group that you will be saving the sheet and referring to it from time to time to check in on what God has been doing with these requests, and on the members' diligence in continually "knocking".

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Leader's Note: Don't feel the need to correct some of the strange prayers you will hear. But, if you are gathering by the nature of what people are saying they want to start begging God for, that they are saying something they don't mean, or that they aren't sharing something really from the heart because they don't think God cares about it- you may want to prod a little. Maybe you know Mike loves music and wants to have music as more a part of his life- even as part of what he does for a living. He may not feel like God would care about that. You may say, then- "Mike, what would you think about asking God to create an opportunity for you to create and play music? That sounds like something you'd really like to start pounding His door down for. Once people see that it's safe to really throw the huge stuff out there, they'll follow suit.

You may also find people wanting to ask God for a quality of life make-over. Without condemnation- try and get them to ask God to make them part of other people's lives- part of the gospel initiative of Jesus. Steer them to see that "in Jesus' Name" means something so big and beautiful that Jesus would hang His name on it. Celebrate honesty and vulnerability during this time together, and watch as you have everyone trusting each other and growing in faith in friendship because of this exercise. 

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