The Online Bible Class   November/December 2006

(INTRODUCTION and SYLLABUS) STTHP

SOME THINGS THAT HINDER PRAYER (A mini-course)

 by Bev Rainwater

In my own personal experience I have had a lot of people come to me asking, “Why do I feel like my prayers go unanswered, is God really listening?”  These are questions that concern all of us, at one time or another I believe in our lives.  Sometimes our walk with God is stronger and more self assured than it is at other times and I feel that understanding and accepting the avenue of prayer is very important in our walk with Him. 

We will be looking at 8 different topics of why our prayers might go unanswered when we pray them.  I hope that all of us will take our Bibles and search the scripture for each and every question and answer in this course and if you find anything that doesn’t seem to be consistent with what the Bible says then don’t hesitate to bring it to my attention.  

In these lessons there will be some basic rules or a basic form by which we should present our answers:

1. Please be sure to COPY and PASTE each lesson in its entirety to a new email to send to me at:  RainwaterB3@aol.com
2. Please be sure to make your answers in a different color than the lesson itself.  That may seem like a little thing but it makes it much easier for me to grade the tons of lessons that I receive and to find the answers quickly without having to read through the entire thing.
3. Each lesson will be due on Saturday of each week.  If for some reason you cannot send the lesson in at the time it is suppose to be, just let me know that you will be sending it in late.  I am more than willing to work with anyone who may need to send in late because of their busy schedules.
4. In the SUBJECT line of each lesson please write the acronym for the course, the lesson number and your name.  Example:  STTHP – Lesson # - Beverly Rainwater
5. All scripture quotes are taken from King James Version as that is my version of choice for almost all of my work. 
6. Lastly please be sure to hold on to a copy of the answered lesson that you send to me.  As is the nature of computers sometimes they go berserk and we loose everything!  I would hate for you to send in a lesson (the only copy) and then something happen to it and me have to contact you and say do you have another copy of your lesson and for you to have to say no I don’t.  So please make a copy and keep it at least until you receive your grade back from me.  I will try to send each lesson back to you, graded, and with your answers just as you sent it, that way you will have a copy that is with correct answers for your files.

I hope this will be a good study for all of you.  I feel it is something that all Christians need from time to time.  It never hurts for us to learn and study on things that we know about but may have pushed to the back of our minds during our daily grind.

Here is the syllabus for this course study:

INTRODUCTION:

A.     Prayer is a much needed part of Christian living

B.      Prayer is communication with God

C.     God answers prayers:  yes, no, wait/maybe

D.     We live in a power age:  prayer is our connection to great power

E.      “Some Things That Hinder Prayer”

I.      We Do Not Ask

II.     We Doubt That God Will Answer

III.    Wrong Doing In Our Lives

IV.   Self-Righteousness

V.    Selfishness: 

VI.   Neglect and Hindrances of Prayer

VII.  A lack of Understanding

VIII. A Lack of Persistence and Lack of Consistence in Living

Please “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  II Timothy 2:15.

Beverly Rainwater

RainwaterB3@aol.com