What is our motive?

Week 2: WHAT IS OUR MOTIVE?

How can motive enter into asking? James 4:3

Group:1- Many times we use God as a good luck charm.  We go to Him when times suck.  Our motives shouldn't be for God to make things better.  Like the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30, if we use our talents wisely God will bless us.

Group:2- Many times we go to God to see what we can get from him.  There is always going to be asking no motive what our motive is.  God can change our motives.  Ultimately our motive needs to be for God's glorification!  Every aspect of our life should bring Gods glory.  Just because we are asking for something for ourselves it doesn't mean it's a selfish motive.

Group:3- sin allows for impure motives.

How do you read Psalm 37:4?  Where do desires come from?

Group:1- desires come from the heart.

Group:2- our hearts can be wrong, as we grow in the Lord He gives us His desires.  We can have faith God will provide things He has already promised.  God provided for Leah with her car, rent etc.

Group:3- they come from delighting in God, finding pleasure and joy in Christ.

What are we doing when we ask for something "In His Name?" John 14:13-14

Group:1- When we pray, God grants things to us in order to glorify Him.  We are going out and doing it with faith.

Group:2- There is power in God's name.  We have to be confident in who we are in God.  We come in the name of the King!

Group:3- in Matthew 17:14-21 the disciples cast out demons, but Jesus said it can only be cast out through prayer. 

Punch Line: How do the passages above reflect on the idea of praying “in the Spirit” Eph 6:18

Group:1- Like the Simon and the sorcerer- sometimes we want prophetic gifts etc. supernatural powers, but without the right motives and Gods blessing it is in vain.

Group:2- a common thread was: motives, desires.  Listening to the spirit in His promptings.  Jesus only does what God is doing in heaven.  Taking a step in the unknown and trusting.

Group:3- we are to have pure motives, our desires should line up with God, and we are to use Jesus name in prayer which is how we pray in the spirit.

Application-

Examine your motives.

Ask the Lord to teach us how to pray.

Food for thought:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PRAY IN THE SPIRIT???

PRAYER...POWERFUL PRAYER

I dare to say our first night was a success.  For those who were there, I could feel we really got into it guys!  Yeay!  So we looked at a few questions on some scripture passages concerning prayer and this is what we came up with...

1. How does Jesus describe our position with God? (Based on Matthew 7:7-11)

• We are His children
• Example: a man who gets his window broken by the neighbor boy would likely call the cops, but if his own son broke the window he would likely handle the situation with much more grace.  This is how it is with God because we have been adopted into His family upon salvation.
• We are to God like the neighbor kid who knocks on your door and asks "where's the cookies?"  Like children we can ask God bluntly for things.  :D
• we NEED to be dependent on God, but we don't always like to be!
• especially biceps- um...that was a tangent, lol

2. Are we in the position of the "righteous" in James 5:16? Why or why not?

• what is righteousness, how do you obtain it?
• Righteousness is given to us by God
• Righteousness is to be right with God
• you will know righteousness by fruit
• the definition: morality (righteousness is not simply moral living, because we cannot become right with God on works alone)

3. What impact does agreement in asking have in Matthew 18:19?

• Where 2 of you on earth agree, God says yes
• motives are important to recognize behind the request
• powerful things will happen
• our prayers are effective
• David and Laura prayed for Isaac's delivery and he was born the next day!  God granted their request after coming into agreement together.
• coming in agreement is also effective in decision making.  Two people coming to an agreement can cause for confirmation.
• Decision making is easier with the help of mentors, friends

Punch Line: Who was asking in Matthew 15:21-28?

• The Canaanite/Gentile woman

How did she overcome the problem?

• She was PERSISTENT
• had FAITH
• BELIEF
• HUMILITY
• God hears everyone's prayers yet...
• we are to ask with these things in mind

WITH THAT, LET OUR PRAYERS BE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE...LETS SEE GOD DO SOME AWESOME THINGS AMONG US!!!

New Direction

Alrighty, so a little update on the Red Path here.  We are doing something new this week.  The past meetings have been comprised of dinner, games, worship music, reading scripture together with discussion and we end with praying for one another.

With some thought and evaluation David, Laura and I decided that we needed some more structure within our study of scripture.  The purpose of this structure being that we have a question to keep us focused.  This question will also help us to think critically as we study the word together.  We will split into even smaller groups in order to keep away from "group think" as much as possible so that the diversity of our answers will help us to challenge one another.

So, that's what we're doing this week...looking forward to how it turns out.