Here is the study guide for this week’s chapter in D. A. Carson’s book A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

Chapter Seven – Excuses for Not Praying

1. Before you read the chapter, what excuses have you encountered in yourself or from others for why people don’t pray?

2. What are the excuses that Carson lists? With which do you identify and why?

3. How does Luke 10:38-42 speak to Jesus’ perception of our busyness when it comes to making time for prayer? How about 1 Cor. 7:1-5? What might you need to cut out of your schedule to make more time to pray?

4. What two monstrous presuppositions lie behind the excuse of feeling spiritually dry? How do the two parables of Jesus speak to this according to the author? What implicit assumption is in both parables?

5. How is the third excuse trickier than the first two? What is God’s response according to Carson? Where does he illustrate this in Scripture?

6. Why is real prayer squeezed out in the fourth excuse? What is God’s response?

7. What is God’s response to the problem of shame in the fifth excuse? Where have you struggled with this?

8. What is the sixth excuse and what is God’s response?

9. As part of your reading of this chapter, spend some time with God examining your own heart with regard to excuses you tend to make about praying. How does the Lord speak to you? Where will the power of the gospel come to bear on your life to make changes so that your prayer life will undergo more and more spiritual reformation?

In case you didn’t get a copy this past Sunday, here is the study guide for this week’s discussion in the 9:30 equipping hour.

A Call to Spiritual Reformation – Study Guide #7
Chapter Six – The Content of a Challenging Prayer (Colossians 1:9-14)

1. What two foci does Carson say exist for a study of the Scriptures with a view to strengthening one’s prayer life?
2. What question does the author raise about our praying in comparison with the kind of petitions Paul prayed throughout the Scriptures? How do you react to this?
3. What is the first area of lessons provided by studying the prayer of Paul under consideration in this chapter?
4. How does Carson challenge us to respond in evaluating our own prayer lives given the extensive nature of Paul’s prayers? What resources might you employ to help you grow in this area?
5. What does it mean that Paul had “not stopped praying” for the Colossians? Where have you stopped praying for a regular, ongoing need, for which you need to resume praying on a consistent basis?
6. What important link does Carson reemphasize in v. 9 of this prayer about the way Paul prays and what extremely important conclusion does he draw in this chapter? How does he make application to our lives? Where do you possibly relate in terms of your own experience?
7. What is the second area of lessons provided by studying the prayer of Paul under consideration in this chapter?
8. How does Carson qualify and unpack the one petition found in this prayer of Paul? How does he tie this in to the cultural and historical context affecting his readers and where does he make application to our own generation? Do you agree or disagree and why?
9. What does it mean to live a life worthy of the Lord according to this petition? How does Carson’s explanation of this in terms of a shame-based culture help drive home the significance of this purpose to the petition?
10. What are the four characteristics of a God-pleasing life? Which of these convicts you most and why?
11. What are one or two ways this chapter will affect your prayer life in the future?

In case you may have missed picking up a study guide last Sunday for this Sunday’s 9:30 equipping hour on prayer, here it is!

Chapter Five – A Passion for People (1 Thessalonians 3:9-13)

1. What does Carson say makes this particular prayer of Paul a serviceable model for what it means to pray for others?
2. What biblical evidence does the author cite for his conviction that Paul’s ministry was first and foremost designed to serve the people of God and what relationship does this have to Paul’s prayers for his readers? For whom has God given you such a passion?
3. What is the difference between the two questions, How can I be most useful?, and How can I feel most useful? Where does Carson draw his point from the biblical text? What is the relationship of this principal to praying for others?
4. What does Carson conclude about Paul’s praying from 1 Thess. 3:6-8? What conclusion does he draw about our praying at the close of this section?
5. What are the four themes that reveal Paul’s continuing passion for others in 1 Thess. 3:9-13?
6. How does Carson further develop our understanding of Paul’s lush thankfulness?
7. What three details does Carson bring out in the second theme?
8. Why is the third theme so very important in our praying?
9. What is it about the fourth theme that connects it to the first chapter of Carson’s book?
10. What prayer for others is most fundamental and why?
11. What changes will you make in your praying in light of this chapter?

Here is the study guide for this Sunday morning’s 9:30 hour:

1. What basic question regarding sermons, programs, and leaders must never be displaced according to Carson on p. 64?
2. What anticipated objection to this principle does he seek to answer in light of the two great commandments? What two opposing dangers does he expose? How does 1 John 4:19-21 speak to the second of these dangers?
3. What additional objection does Carson anticipate on p. 66 and how does he answer it in light of his overall purpose in writing this book? What flawed school of thought related to prayer does he seek to expose in his argument? How do Paul’s prayers demonstrate the opposite?
4. At some point during your week, take time to read through slowly and reflectively the various prayers of Paul recorded by Carson on pp. 67-74. How does the Lord use this exercise in your spiritual life? With what observations, convictions, impressions about prayer and your personal prayer experience do you come away from the exercise?
5. What conclusion of profound importance will we never overlook if we follow Paul’s example in prayer according to Carson at the bottom of p. 74 and top of p. 75?
6. What is the first of two corollaries that Carson brings to bear on the theme of this chapter on p. 75? How does it relate to his overall purpose in the book?
7. What is the second corollary the author addresses on pp. 75ff? What notorious example of this principle does Carson address on p. 76?
8. How do you react to the story about the abused woman and her journey toward forgiveness, particularly the statement, This forgiveness had to be total and unqualified . . . regardless of whether he responded in repentance or in wretched self-justification and anger? How might Luke 17:1-4 further speak to this question? Luke 23:34? For more help, see Ken Sande’s chapter on forgiveness in The Peacemaker.
9. When you examine your own heart with respect to unconfessed sin, nurtured sin, what things does the Lord reveal within that you need to bring to the grace of Christ at the cross? Where might you need to practice some biblical peacemaking as a consequence?

Here is the study guide for this Sunday’s 9:30 equipping hour.

A Call to Spiritual Reformation – Study Guide #4
Chapter Three – Worthy Petitions

1. What again are the two aspects of Paul’s framework for prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1 from chapter two?
2. What is the first petition that Paul prays for the Thessalonian Christians? What explanation does Carson give about God’s calling in a Christian’s life and how does it tie into his prayer on their behalf?
3. In light of this petition of Paul, what does Carson say should be our chief concern in petition and how does it relate to the framework Paul lays out earlier in the chapter? Why must we pray this way?
4. How do you react to Carson’s question, When was the last time you prayed for such things?
5. What is the second petition Paul prays for them? Why does Carson say this petition is so very important to pray?
6. What is the two-part goal of Paul in these prayers? How is our glory tied up with Christ’s glory and what does this say about how we should pray for ourselves and others? How does Paul tie this idea back to his framework in 1:5-10?
7. Again, how do you react to Carson’s question, When was the last time you prayed for such things?
8. What reminder do we regularly need as evidenced by the ground of Paul’s prayer in conclusion?
9. What does Carson mean by, It is vitally important to reflect on the extraordinarily wholistic thinking that is represented by this prayer (p. 61)?
10. What one or two take aways from this chapter will shape your praying in the future?