Prayerfully Dependent
Teaching Pastor; Staff Governing Elder; Staff Director
Being prayerfully dependent locks every other Core Value into place and redirects our thoughts and hearts away from the world and towards God. While some of us may struggle with being too naturally independent, and others with being too dependent on relationships with others, the pursuit of this intimate relationship with God is less about a method and more about recognizing our frailty and need for him in every moment.
Study Questions
Being prayerfully dependent locks every other Core Value into place and redirects our thoughts and hearts away from the world and towards God. While some of us may struggle with being too naturally independent, and others with being too dependent on relationships with others, the pursuit of this intimate relationship with God is less about a method and more about recognizing our frailty and need for him in every moment.Application
On this continuum of independence and dependence, which category do you lean toward? What are some examples of ways in which you tend toward one or the other? What is a practical way you can move away from independence or dependence on others?
Because of our American culture, we are at a decided disadvantage in being prayerfully dependent. We don’t live with the daily consciousness of how frail we truly are, and our security is an illusion. What are some things in your life daily that give you a false sense of control or security? How do these factors keep you from depending on God?
In the Lord’s Prayer, we see: the awareness of our own frailty, how easily we can be tripped up in sin and its destruction, how we should come to God with confidence and to own his cause, how to bring him our needs with open hands, and the acknowledgment of our brokenness and need for him to work on our behalf.
What are some ways this posture of prayer is or is not reflective of you? Did this explanation help you become aware of any ways that you approach God that you want to change?
What keeps you personally from resting in the shadow of the Almighty? (Psalm 91) Below are seven categories for us to think through and their corresponding truths. Based on which categories you resonate with, how are you going to preach truth to yourself? Is there any action you need to take?
Key Points
Prayerful dependence is a place—a psychological and spiritual location where we move ourselves into a place of living daily in nearness to the Most High God.
In Matthew 6, Jesus uses sweet, personal language to describe the posture of our prayer—our Father knows what we need.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus encourages the disciples to come to God with confidence and intimacy.
In prayer, our perspective should be in Heaven, bringing ourselves into alignment with his kingdom on earth instead of trying to get God in alignment with our own plans.