The Lord's Prayer is a basic Christian prayer. As a model of prayer, every Christian learns it by heart. Though we memorize it as a set formula, the Lord's Prayer shouldn't be repeated mechanically or without thought. Its purpose is to awaken and stimulate our faith. Through this prayer Jesus invites us to approach God as Father. The Lord's Prayer is a guide or an outline on how to pray.  Jesus does not make us use these exact words or demand this set form, but gives a proper brief simple example of payer.

Intercessory Prayer is praying for others. It is when we stand in the gap and ask God to help others. The greatest intercessor was Jesus Christ himself. He died on the cross for us and became our intercessory to God. In John 17 we see Jesus's prayer to God on behalf of all of us. As Jesus prayed for us, we must also pray for others.

Jabez is only mentioned in these two versus of the bible, but from his prayer we learn that little prayers can bring big blessings. Jabez's prayer is composed of four parts: First Jabez asks God to bless him, next he asks for his territory (or responsibility) to be increased, then he asked that God keep his hand upon him, and finally he asked God to keep him from evil. God answered his prayer. We learned how to pray for others before, but in this prayer we learn how to pray for ourselves or petition. Jabez understood that he couldn't have or do nothing with out God; thus he cried out this prayer. Today we can pray this prayer. By asking God to bless us more, increase our responsibility for Him, that he will stay with us during our witness, and that He will protect us from God.

Recommended reading: Prayer of Jabez: The Book by Bruce Wilkinson

Patience is defined as enduring and long suffering. Many times we pray for something to happen and expect God to act right away. As Christians we sometimes must go through something before we receive our blessing. Going through this struggle serves a purpose; it allows us to grow strong so that we may be ready for the call and the blessings that God has for us.

After the Last Supper Jesus walked up to Mt. Olive where he often prayed. He asked them to pray that they would not do evil. Jesus then went away from them and prayed. Jesus asked God that he would not have to drink of this cup; but that God will and not his would be done. The cup represented the task of dying for our sins. Jesus was 100% human and 100% God and he did not want to feel the sorrow or pain that he was and would be feeling by dying on the cross. Like Jesus we should pray for God's will not our will to be done, because when our will lines up with His will that is when we will receive our true blessings.

Grace is a gift from God. He sent his son down to die for our sins. Once we are saved, we may sin, but we are no longer sinners. The Grace that God has shown, we as Christians should be able to show that same grace to our fellow Christian brother and sisters.

Questions for next Bible Study:

What gives us the right to say we are Christians?
What is a Christian?
Who has the right to call themselves a Christian?
At what point do you stop being a Christian?
How far is to far when it comes to Christianity; ie can we over do it?
At what point is your covenant with God broken?
When people look at you, what or who do they see?

The simple answer to what a Christian is; is that they are a follower of Christ. Now with this answer comes many more questions, some that we have listed. As soon as you accept Jesus in your life and become born again you are a Christian; this is salvation. That you are saved from sin and going hell when you die. Salvation defined; redemption: the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil. Once saved this is not the end of the of the story. You are now a Christian a follower who has a job to spread God's word. Everyone will have different ministries to fulfil it is up to you to pray and find out what that ministry is so that you can work on building God's kingdom.

King Solomon was a rich man who had it all. With all his money and possessions he realized he was still not truly happy. He discovered that it was the work to get to the riches that made him happy. The work that he did for God that brought him true happiness.

Being a Christian means there will be good times and bad times. During both we should be happy and thankful just because of the God we serve. Where do Christians find happiness? In God, in Jesus and the work that we do for Him.

Here we find Jesus and his disciples traveling through Samaria. Jesus meets a woman at the well and asked her for some water. The woman asked how could Jesus a Jew as her a Samaritan for some water; because Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with each other. Jesus responded with if you knew who was asking, you would be asking me about the water that gives life. She saw Jesus had no bucket and wondered how he could get any water. He told her with his water she would never thirst again. At first this woman was ignorant to who she was talking to, but once Jesus prophesied to her; she knew he was special and once he told her he was the Messiah, she went out and told others to come see him.

Being a Christian means being hungry or thirsty for the word of God. Jesus used water because water sustains life. We need "physical" water to live. As Christians we need the water that Jesus spoke of; himself. With Jesus in us we will never thirst again; we will be fulfilled.

From this chapter we also see how we as Christians should minister to others. Jesus came to the Samaritan woman and was polite. Out of respect he asked for her to go get her husband; knowing she was not married and was living with a man and had been married five times before. When we minister to non-believers or when we confront believers we must follow Jesus example and come with the true intent of bringing them the word of God and come to them with love and care.

Once the Samaritan woman was ministered to, she went out and told others about Jesus and literally brought them to him. As soon as we are ministered to and accept Christ and become Christians, the job starts right then and there. We now must go out and minister to others and build the Kingdom of God. The Samaritan woman evangelized right after talking to Jesus.

As Christians we must remember not to forget our self, when we are studying and strengthening our spiritual gifts. We must also pray for ourselves along with our gifts i.e. we can't only pray for our title like teacher for example and leave it at that wee must also ask for strength for yourself. We must ask God to fix us, the foundation before asking for other things. We can't live in our giftings and not build our character.

Being a good steward means taking care of what you have been given. God has given all Christians a job and things to take care of. We must learn to take care of those things no matter how big or small, because then and only then can he bless us with more and take us to the next level. Being a Christian means going through the process of sanctification; a growing process.

When it comes to Christianity fear has to meanings; the fear of God and fear as we know it, to be afraid. Here we talk about the fear that means to be afraid. We see how Peter had faith to walk on the water, but when he saw the storm he became afraid and began to sink. We can't let fear keep us from seeing Jesus. We must have faith and not be afraid, because we know the power that God has. The bigger your faith, the smaller your fear will be.

As Christians, it is important for us not only to sow seeds but to sow seeds into the right places. The parable of the seed sower shows what happens when seeds fall in certain places as in life when the word of God is spread and that Christians are blessed by other Christians. Seeds we plant, blessing we spread, need to be placed on fertile ground, into receptive people, where it can take root and grow so that they can produce fruit and sow into others.