Page 2 - Diocese of Lincoln – The Lent Course 2025

WEEK 1
Saying Please
The most obvious kind of prayer is the kind where we ask God for things. Please make somebody well. Please may we have fine weather at the weekend. Please give me the strength to get through the day.
Asking God for things is sometimes called ‘petition’ or ‘intercession’. In this first week of our course we look at prayer through the lens of saying ‘please’ to God. What is really happening when we ask God to do things for us?
Do you like asking for things? When you pray, what do you ask for? Is asking God for things an important part of your prayer life? Is it the only thing you do when you pray, or do you hardly ever do it?
Spend some time thinking about these questions. Jot down some of your thoughts.
FIRST THOUGHTS
OPENING
PRAYER
Almighty God, your Son Jesus taught his followers to pray to you as a Father who loves to give his children good gifts. Teach
us to pray, and guide us by your Spirit to ask you for everything that is good and needful. Amen.
BIBLE READING
Read the following two passages from the Bible.
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[Jesus said,] ‘Ask, and
it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door
will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
These passages encourage us to ask God to give us things. They seem to promise that God will give us the things that we ask for. Has that been your experience? If not, what has?
Apart from encouraging us to ask God for things, what else do these passages invite us to do?
1
BIBLE
2
BIBLE
Spend some time thinking about these questions. Jot down a few of your thoughts.