You already have God’s heart for people around you. Here are ways to pray that God will nourish that vision:
- Pray that God will give you His vision and plan to see people and their needs as He does.
- Pray that God will grow your heart for those who don’t know Christ and give you a desire to reach them through a Bible study group.
- Pray that you will be intentional about your own spiritual growth, allowing God to work in and through you.
- Pray for God’s guidance, equipping, and empowerment to move forward in what He is calling you to do.
As important as prayer is to the foundation and beginning of your Bible study group, your personal spiritual growth is just as important to sustaining it over time.
In his acclaimed book on communication, Dallas Seminary Professor, Dr. Howard Hendricks says it best: “The effective teacher always teaches from the overflow of a full life. If you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow.” Mother Teresa reflected the same message: “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil into it.”
Our spiritual growth as leaders and facilitators allows God to use us to model and encourage our members to be intentional in pursuing a relationship with Christ. To be effective in encouraging our group members to grow, we must challenge ourselves by practicing spiritual disciplines beyond studying our materials. This includes daily Bible and devotional reading as well as spending time with God in prayer and listening.
“You see, effective teaching comes only through a changed person,” says Hendricks. “The more you change, the more you become an instrument of change in the lives of others.”