Spiritually Disciplined—Learning to Live Jesus-Shaped Lives

Listening & Speaking

Trish Haq

May 14, 2023

With a friend, your family or in your small group, discuss the following questions:

1. What recharges you? When you are feeling depleted and worn out, what helps restore you and give you energy?
2. What role, if any, does prayer have in your life, when you are in need of recharging? Is prayer a source of power and strength for you?
3. Prayer is an important spiritual discipline that should hold high priority for us as followers of Jesus. Do you agree? In what ways do you prioritize prayer in your own life? In what ways do you find it a challenge to make prayer a priority? What’s one thing that you would like to do to deepen your prayer life?
4. It is a great gift to be listened to. In your life, do you have people who are good at lending you their ear? What impact does it have for you when someone listens well? Do you do this for others? Reflect together on what it means that God does this for us. He listens when we speak to him.
5. God is a good listener, but prayer is not meant to be a monologue. Instead, it is meant to be an opportunity to have a conversational relationship with God. This involves both speaking and listening. Do you find you are able to listen for God’s voice? In what ways do you find you are usually able to perceive what God is impressing on your heart? In what ways do you find it difficult to hear from God?
6. Growing an ability to hear from God requires the disciplines of solitude and silence. Do you make time for this in your life? Why or why not?
7. Discuss the challenges that technology and busyness have created, that often get in the way of our ability to seek solitude.
8. Reflect together on what Jesus models for us throughout the gospels when it comes to prayer. What examples come to mind of how Jesus prayed, and how he taught us to pray. What can we learn from Him?
9. What do your current rhythms of prayer look like in your life? What is one thing that you would like to try this week, to deepen your commitment to listening and speaking to God in prayer? (hint: Don't make it too complicated. It could be as simple as committing to sitting in prayerful silence for 2 minutes each day!).

Prayer and Action Item

Pray for one another out of the key points that were discussed. Pray specifically for the one thing that you each shared that you would like to try in the coming week, to deepen your prayer lives. Before closing your prayer time, spend 2-3 minutes sitting together in silence.