Grow Group Questions • Citizen Exile • Daniel 9

Download PDFDownload Word Document Conversation Starter/Questions (10-15 minutes)(use one or both; your preference)
Option 1: In life, we have to have discipline. Discipline in regards to our weight management, our budget, even our sleep schedule. How are you performing in these areas? How does your discipline in these areas compare to your discipline of prayer and time in God’s Word? Option 2: How did it go last week with your challenge to pray 3 times a day and journal? What insight did you glean about God, yourself, or the practice of prayer?
  Sermon Based Questions (15-20 minutes)
Read or paraphrase Daniel Chapter 9. How would you describe Daniel’s relationship with God as expressed in this prayer in Daniel 9? Why?
How does this relationship compare to yours – how is it similar, how is it different? What role does prayer seem to play in Daniel’s relationship with God? What role does prayer currently play in your relationship with God?
Pastor Thad commented early in his sermon about how blown away he is at the truths about God in regards to prayer and mankind. Which concept regarding prayer most blows your mind, and why? Which one gives you the most peace?
We have a God who hears our prayers We have a God who prays for us We have a God who answers our prayers We have a God who answers our prayers according to His will Bonus: We have a God who is patient with us in our misguided prayers and our lack of prayer.
  Digging Deeper (15-20 minutes)
Read Daniel 9:3 and James 5:17. Based on what these scriptures say about prayer, how do you think you are doing in your prayer life currently? Rate on a scale of 1 to 5. Why did you rate yourself that way? What do you feel are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to prayer? In the sermon, pastor Thad talked about praying for others and the community of faith-oriented nature of prayer. Have you ever told someone you would pray for them and didn’t? How does it impact you when someone says that they are praying for you? What do your answers tell you about yourself and your real value regarding prayer or theological understanding of prayer? Read Romans 8:26-27 and Hebrews 7:25. How does it impact you to know that God is praying for you or will pray on your behalf? Have you ever asked God to pray for you because you aren’t sure what to pray for in regards to a confusing situation? How did that impact you?  Read Daniel 9:2; John 15:7. These texts communicate to believers that there is great precedence to pray according to God’s Word, which is demonstrated by how many other biblical references there are in Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9. Why do you think praying according to God’s word would be a helpful practice? Have you ever heard of this practice? If so, how often do you pray God’s Word, and would you be willing to try this if you are not praying God’s Word often? What, if any, are the challenges to praying God’s Word?
  Challenge and Prayer (15-20 minutes)
Below is a brief list of prayers or Scriptures that can be utilized to pray. Pick some from the list, or others you know, and as a group take time to pray over the rest of group. Please use any verses you normally use also, if you choose to do so. Take a few minutes to read the scripture and meditate on it individually before starting the prayer time. 
Galatians 5: 16-21 (resisting evil)  Ephesians 3: 16-20 (be strengthened, established, confident in the love of Christ).  Philippians 1: 9-11 (knowledge, discernment, filled with the fruit of righteousness).  Colossians 1: 9-14 (wisdom, growth, joyfully giving thanks, redemption).  I Thessalonians 3:12-13 (love increase, heart strengthened, blameless).  II Thessalonians 1:11-12 (worthy of God’s calling, fulfill every good purpose).  I Timothy 1:12 (strength, faithful, service).  I Peter 5:6-11 (humility, anxiety, self-control, resist the devil, restore).  II Peter 1: 5-8 (list of things to add to our faith).  Jude 1:20-25 (pray, God’s love, mercy, faultless).
Write down the principles shared by pastor Thad this week. Utilize these principles in your prayer times.
In response and in accordance to God’s will Fervency and at times with symbolic sacrifice Confession (God’s greatness; our weakness; humbleness) With an appeal to God’s glory Personally, and Corporately
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