In my previous post, I shared the commitments of our FBC Newton Discipleship-Groups. Along with those commitments, what actually happens when the group meets? One important aspect is sharing personal prayer needs.
By Personal Prayer Needs, we mean prayer requests that you have for yourself or for your immediate family (as in the people who live in the house with you). Most of us are good at sharing the prayer needs of other people around us, but we are seldom transparent about what we need prayer for the most in our own lives. Being honest and transparent in this way takes trust. That trust is more easy to develop in a small D-group than in a Sunday School class of 12 people.
We believe that prayer is effective at changing lives, and so we ask for Personal Prayer Needs and then we take the time to pray together for one another.
Are you sharing personal prayer needs with anyone in your life? Or do you keep all of those to yourself?
In conjunction with these prayer needs, we then ask for each person to share what God has been teaching them through their Bible reading. This is where we share what we have written down that God has been teaching us. This could be something challenging, helpful, interesting, or difficult from your Bible reading. Again, these are also often a form of prayer needs, as someone might say, “As I was reading this passage about controlling the tongue, God pointed out to me to watch how I talk to my wife. I have been pretty harsh lately.” This becomes an additional transparent prayer need that we can pray for as a group.
As we read God’s Word, we ask each person to ask: “What applications can I find in the passage to help me live for Christ more consistently?”
One way you can do this is to use C.A.S.E. to find application points. As you read the Bible, look for:
- C – Commands to obey
A – Attitudes to change
S – Sins to avoid or confess
E – Examples to follow
Then we pray to end our meeting, asking God to help us apply something specific that we have discussed/discovered in our meeting.
As I wrote previously, I will say again: You need this in your life!
You need to be discipled by others and you need to be discipling others.
That is the calling on your life to “Go and make disciples” that Jesus commanded of you.
Are you reading your Bible with a view toward how to apply it to your life? The Bible gives us clear application of how to live in a way to bring glory to our great God.
Who do you have in your life that you are able to share personal prayer needs with? Who do you know is truly committed to praying for you? Who can you ask to pray for you regarding the applications you are gaining from your Bible reading? There are people out there who are willing to be in a group with you to do this. If you aren’t sure who they are, begin praying now that God will point them out to you, and then invite those two or three people to start a group with you.
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