Prayer Study-Session Two (1/21/07)

Study Guide for Chapter 3: “Just As We Are”

(If you are new to the study and do not have a book, you can order one by clicking on the icon in the left panel.)

With twenty-two chapters and only thirteen weeks in our study, we will look at two chapters most weeks. This week we will study only one chapter. It is packed with information and challenges. [Correction: last week’s verse to memorize was Mark 9:24, not Luke 9:24.]

A. A verse to memorize: John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

B. Book/Bible Study

1. Yancey describes us “Just As We Are” with six terms. Only two of these are positive virtues. Is this a good way to describe us? Why not use more positive terms?
   
   
2. Which of the six terms (the section headings) comes closest to describing your most common state of mind as you pray?
   
   
3. If God knows us at our core and loves us anyway, why spend so much time on our sin and confession?
   
   
4. Notice the quotation (page 35) from a character in an 1884 novel by Henry Adams: “Why must the church always appeal to my weakness and never to my strength!”
1. Is the church any different now than it was seen in 1884 by that character?
2. How do you respond to this complaint?
3. What would be the result if the church always appealed to our strength and never to our weakness?
4. What do you think of Yancey’s answer to this complaint?
   
   

C. Class Discussion

1. This chapter suggests we come to God in prayer “just as we are”. Recall “Just As I Am” the “invitation hymn” sung at every Billy Graham Crusade. Compare the text of that hymn with the various selections for the “Hymn of Invitation” sung at worship services you’ve attended over the past weeks or months. What is the “invitation” presented in each hymn?
   
   
2. Compare these four items in Chapter 3: (1) the F. Buechner footnote on page 32; (2) “Bearing Secrets” on pages 34-35; (3) the Rilke poem on pages 38-39; and (4) the footnote on page 43 on Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. What do they all have in common? Which speaks best to you?
   
   
3. Your questions and comments.