To place the class in my personal focus this week:

1. Read Matthew 6:5-15 at least once a day.
2. Find moments in the day when you think about these verses.
3. Think of specific instances when prayer is abused.
4. Think of specific instances when prayer is used powerfully.

Questions:

1. What characteristics marked the prayers of a person who is hypocritical?

   1. Could a person who is hypocritical in prayer and a person who is not hypocritical in prayer offer identical prayers? Explain your answer.

   2. If your answer is, "Yes," explain what makes one hypocritical and the other not hypocritical if they pray the same prayer.

2. How should a person pray his or her private prayers? Why?

3. In this teaching, what role does our faith play in our prayers?

4. What were not to be used in our prayers? What is that?

5. What does God know about our needs?

   1. If God has that knowledge, why do we pray?

   2. How should our faith in God's knowledge affect our prayers?

6. In the illustration of how we should pray:

   1. On whom is the prayer focused in verses 9 and 10?

   2. On whom is the prayer focused in verses 11 through 13?

   3. What was the focus of the three requests that are made in the prayer?

7. What basic understanding must we have according to verses 14 and 15?

   1. What is your understanding of "forgiving"?

   2. In your understanding, why does our willingness to forgive other people affect God's willingness to forgive us?

David Chadwell

Building a Healthy Faith Study Guide (lesson 3)
Sunday morning young adult Bible class, Summer Quarter 1999
West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR

Copyright © 1999
Permission is granted to freely copy and distribute with text unchanged, including author's name.

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