Prayer : Opening Your Heart to God

by Bill Hybels with Kevin and Sherry Harney

• ISBN13: 9780310266006
• ISBN10: 0310266009
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-01
• Publisher: Zondervan

Summary

The Creator of the universe wants to have a dynamic relationship with you. The key is prayer. Authentic, courageous, direct communication with God.

Author Biography

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois Kevin and Sherry Harney serve together at Corinth Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Kevin is teaching pastor

Table of Contents

Interactions	7	(2)
Introduction: Opening Your Heart to God	9	(2)
SESSION 1 The Privilege of Prayer	11	(6)
SESSION 2 How to Pray Authentically	17	(6)
SESSION 3 Dangerous Prayers	23	(6)
SESSION 4 The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer	29	(6)
SESSION 5 Painfully Honest Prayers	35	(6)
SESSION 6 The Lord's Prayer	41	(6)
Leader's Notes	47

Excerpts

Prayer
Copyright © 1997 by Willow Creek Association
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
ISBN-10: 0-310-26600-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26600-6
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International
Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any
other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Interior design by Rick Devon and Michelle Espinoza
Printed in the United States of America
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S E S S I O N 1
P R A Y E R
T H E B I G P I C T U R E
I want to begin this small group session by asking you to play
a word association game. You don’t have to say anything out
loud at this point, simply think about what your first response
is when you hear the word prayer. What comes to your mind
when you hear this word?
I suspect some people think of guilt. You might feel you don’t
pray enough. Maybe you used to pray more than you do now,
but you’ve become too busy. You have broken out of all the
patterns that used to serve you so well, and you feel guilty for
not keeping them up.
Maybe what comes to your mind is being frustrated. You
have been praying diligently and it seems like nothing happens.
You cry out, but all you get is silence. You lift your voice
to God and you feel as if it falls on deaf ears.
Possibly the word that comes to your mind is apathetic. You
are willing to sit in this group and listen, but you don’t have
any real strong feelings about prayer. Maybe you tried prayer
in the past and it left you cold. Now you don’t really care a
whole lot about it.
Or maybe the word prayer brings to mind being fearful. You
don’t really know how to pray. You are terrified about the
possibility that someone in a group like this might ask you to
pray out loud. The very thought causes your throat to get dry
and your hands to get sweaty. You feel like your words are
clumsy while everyone else prays so naturally.
It has been my experience over the years that whenever I ask
a group of people how they feel about prayer, there is always
a wide range of responses. Some are very positive and others
can be quite negative. However, in most cases the topic of
prayer does evoke some kind of response.
THE PRIVILEGE
OF PRAYER
A W I D E A N G L E V I E W
1. What kinds of visual images come to your mind when
you hear the word prayer?
A B I B L I C A L P O R T R A I T
Read Luke 18:1–8
Read Snapshot “A Contrast, Not a Comparison”
2. If this story is read as a comparison, what do you learn
about:
• God (how He feels about us)
A CONTRAST, NOT A COMPARISON
Jesus told the story of the widow and the judge in order to motivate people to pray. Often people read
this story as a comparison: The woman represents us and the judge represents God. I don’t think this
is an accurate interpretation. At the end of the story Jesus says something that tips us off to what the
story is really about. He says, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out
to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and
quickly” (Luke 18:7–8a). This is a tip-off to the fact that this story is not a comparison; rather, it is a brilliantly devised,
cleverly communicated study in contrast.
Jesus was saying that we are not like the widow. As a matter of fact, we are totally unlike, maybe even the opposite of
the widow. She was forgotten, abandoned, disconnected, and had no access to the judge. We, on the other hand, are in
the family of God if we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are sons and daughters of God. We have been
adopted into His family through Christ. We have a favored position before God.
In the same way, God is nothing like the judge. He is not stoic, uncaring, seated behind some intimidating bench. He is
not heartless and disconnected. He is not moved to act because He is sick and tired of our nagging. Instead, He loves
His people and is deeply concerned about them. We matter to Him, and He wants to answer our prayers.
• Us (as people approaching God in prayer)
• The reason God answers prayer
3. If this story is read as a contrast, what do you learn
about:
• God (how He feels about us)
• Us (as people approaching God in prayer)
• The reason God answers prayer
S H A R P E N I N G T H E F O C U S
Read Snapshot “A Direct Line”
4. How does it make you feel when you realize that you
have a direct line of communication to the throne
room of God?
If this is true, what keeps us from “dialing in” more often?
Read Snapshot “The Heart of God”
A DIRECT LINE
I remember something my dad arranged for me and the rest of the kids in our family while we were
growing up. My father was a very successful, eccentric, and adventurous businessman who traveled
all over the world. There were a lot of people fighting for his time. When you called his office, you had
to go through the switchboard and a couple of secretaries before you were able to talk with him. But
he arranged to have a private line right on his desk and gave out that number to each of his children.
He would often say to us, “Now kids, call me at work, because I would love to hear from you anytime.”
My dad died almost twenty years ago, but I can still give you the phone number to that private line. I will take that number
to my grave, because I used it hundreds of times. Every time I called I would say, “Are you busy, Dad?” “No, no,” he
would say, “I’m not busy. Thanks for calling me, Billy. What’s on your mind?” Having that direct access communicated
value to me.
Over the years I have learned that I have this same kind of access to my heavenly Father. He treats me as a favored son,
and He is never too busy to talk with me. As a matter of fact, He is always glad when I dial in!
THE HEART OF GOD
In the story recorded in Luke 18, Jesus described the crooked judge as unrighteous, unfair, disrespectful,
uncaring, preoccupied, and totally disinterested in the needs of the widow. Why do you
think Jesus went to such great pains to describe the judge? Because He wanted us to know that our
heavenly Father is totally unlike that character. Our God is righteous, holy, responsive, tenderhearted,
sympathetic, and kind.
We don’t have to wrench a blessing from the white knuckles of a tightfisted God. From cover to cover the Bible teaches
that God is giving, encouraging, nurturing, and empowering. He loves to bestow good things on His children.
5. God is deeply interested in you. He cares about every
detail of your life. How have you experienced the care
of God in some of the “little”

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Excerpted from Prayer: Opening Your Heart to God by Bill Hybels, Hybels
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