Thursday Bible Study

  [Elijah] PREVAILING PRAYER_   1 Kings 18: 41-46_     As English people, we’re traditionally supposed to love a good queue... but I hate queues! They always seem to happen when I’m in a rush.   Whether it’s driving, at the shops, in the bank...   I’m impatient when I pray too. I want God’s response to be positive, painless and immediate.   God, on the other hand, has other plans when it comes to prayer. It’s not about us getting what we want!   When we keep on coming to God and keep on asking from God we learn to draw near to God. Over time, our desires conform to God’s desires.     [Group discussion] How do you respond when it seems to take a long time for God to answer your prayer?     We have already heard Elijah pray in several different situations... for God to withhold the rain, for a dead child to be restored to life, for God to send fire from heaven.   Now Elijah prays again...     [Read 1 Kings 18: 41-4...

  [Elijah] STANDING ALONE_   1 Kings 18:1-40_     In the film Dead Poet’s Society there’s a scene where the teacher, played by Robin Williams, takes his class outside into the courtyard and ask three of his students to simply walk around. Initially, they walk at their own pace, but eventually, they fall into a pattern of all walking to the same rhythm and beat.   The teacher uses this exercise as a way to show how easily and quickly we “fall in line” with the people around us.   It’s hard to think outside the box.   It’s even harder to stand alone for what we know is right.     [Group discussion] Where you encouraged as a child to think and act independently or to be more of a conformist?   What effects has that influence produced in your life?     Elijah had waited three years for this confrontation, and the scene couldn’t have been more dramatic. One man took on the king, 450 pagan priests and the storm god!...    ...