Prayer & Fasting: True Loves Prayer

3/10/2019

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Do you remember the first time you said, “I love you”?
What did you mean by that word, love? What was your hope for the person you were saying it to? What did you hope they heard or felt when you said it?

Obviously this is different than when we say that we love cheeseburgers, or hockey, or a good cup of coffee. In our contemporary culture, is the word LOVE by nature a relative term, subjective to the situation and the person who is using it? Or have we taken a profound concept that is not subjective, and made its meaning weak and empty through overuse or misuse? For either of these possibilities, what are the possible effects on how we understand love within the body of Christ, the church?

Read how John describes the substance of love in 1 John 4:7-12
Are John’s words here useful in establishing what the substance of God’s love really is? Use verse 10 in particular to evaluate your definition of love. Is it more than emotional?

Loving each other through prayer.

Read 1 Thessalonians 3 together to get a sense of Paul’s heart for the people of this 1st century church.

Paul exhibits, or demonstrates at least 4 things in this passage. Read each verse again and look at how these actions are described.

Verse 9: He is deeply thankful for them.
Verses 10-11: He wants them to be strengthened.
Verse 12: He prays for an overflow of love.
Verse 13: He prays that they would be blameless and holy when the end comes.

Walk through these 4 points together and discuss each in the context of your life at Ness.
How have you, or how can you….

...be deeply thankful for those around you? Specifically, thankful to God for what He is doing in and through them. How does this look emotionally, spiritually, relationally, prayerfully? What steps do you need to take in your spiritual life to grow this?
...strengthen others? What does it mean for you to supply what is lacking in someone else’s faith? Is this even possible? How would you know if someone is lacking in their faith? What does lacking in faith look like in your life… right now? Anxiety and worry for example can sometimes be manifestations of a lack of faith because we are not fully able to trust God for the outcome.
...pray for an overflow of love? The passage from 1 John 4:7-12 is a beautiful example of what love in action looks like. Is love at Ness expressed through being friendly and welcoming? That's a great start, but should love be deeper than this? When we walk into church on a Sunday morning, how would things be different if as we talked to people, we told them we would give our life for them? Is this too extreme? Is it even realistic to love this way? If we did love the people we do church with in this way, would we pray differently for each other? How would those prayers sound?
...pray toward the ultimate finish?! Jesus is coming again. This is a biblical fact with a time and date attached (which we graciously will never know until it happens). Is there urgency in our prayer life when it comes to others or do we pray as if we’ll always have a chance to catch up? Are we procrastinating in our petitions for those around us? Paul writes here that holiness and blamelessness come in part through loving each other. Do you agree? How does this work with our ongoing sanctification? (definition here)

Now make a plan. Keep it private or discuss if you want, but how will your prayer life this week be different as a result of the discussion today?