We as a church have taken special care to ensure that the people we are studying with have obtained a proper doctrinal understanding of Christ and His word. We proclaim His requirements, and declare His salvation. However, I’ve learned from experience that only a doctrinal understanding of God is not sufficient. It is not only our task to teach people about God, but we must also teach individuals how to know God for themselves.

When the people you are studying with have difficulties in there lives and face challenges, they must have their own relationship with God, and that will keep them. Your religion will not keep them when their world is on fire. We must teach people to stand with the Lord on their own. There are many ways to know Christ, but the primary way is to have a healthy devotional life. This is time where we commune with God everyday. Below are some ways that we can help our students have a richer experience with God.

Walking with Jesus means a couple of things. First of all, we must pray without ceasing. Prayer is communicating with God, and the lines of communication should always be open. We should pray when we are at work, driving down the street, or talking to our friends. This helps us to be mindful that we are always in the presence of God.

Similarly, walking with Christ also can mean acknowledging and practicing the presence of Christ. When we realize that we are in the presence of Greatness, we tend to govern ourselves appropriately. The get no greater than Christ, and He promised that He would always be with us.

We must not only learn to pray without ceasing, but we must also know that private prayer is necessary if we are to walk with Christ. Private prayer is communicating with God when you get up in the morning, and when you go to bed. It’s praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He’s done. It’s praying for your family, friends, and enemies. This is the time where you confess all of your sins to God. Private prayer is being intentional about starting, continuing, and ending the day with a meaningful private conversation with God.

There are a couple of methods that I uses in teaching people how to devotionally enjoy private prayer. First of all, I model private prayer. Not only will I pray for people, but at the end, I will ask the person I am praying with to repeat a portion of the prayer. This moves the person I am studying with from being a listener of a conversation with me and God to an active participant in that conversation.

Further, I call the people to prayer by asking them, "If God could do one thing for you and your family, what would you want Him to do?" The reason I ask for one thing is "one thing" takes the request from the realm of want or desire to the realm of need. Once they identify this one thing, I will pray for them and their one thing, and then I call them to pray every morning for that one thing. This gets them into the healthy habit of speaking to God regularly.

The following must be done for the people to enjoy a full prayer life. First of all, we must stress the importance of prayer. Too often as we study, prayer is a ritual we must do to start the study. We must make prayer a center piece of our studies. One thing that I have done is to take prayer requests before praying. Not only does this tell our students that they need prayer, but it also informs us on what the student may be dealing with. When you first begin, many of the prayer requests may be superficial, but as time goes on, and the power of prayer is demonstrated, the student will begin to open up. Further, Bible study, itself is a cooperation between the human and the divine. When something is not understood or grasped during the study, it is quite appropriate to pause and pray to the Father for understanding. This is simply developing healthy habits in the student that them may use in their devotional life.

Not only should we dedicate time for prayer in our studies, but prayer is something that should be taught. The disciples came to Jesus and asked Him to teach them how to pray. The result this inquiry was what we call the "Lord’s Prayer." Though this prayer is often recited, Jesus seems to be using this prayer as a model for prayer. In other words, when you pray, you should have the elements that are in this prayer. These elements include praise and adoration, thanksgiving, intercession, supplication, etc…. There are a couple of prayer techniques, which are used often that we can teach our students the spirit of the Lord’s prayer.

Thumb= Praise and Thanksgiving (You are giving God the thumbs up for who He is and what He’s done.

Index Finger= Confession (You are pointing out your sins)

Middle Finger= Intercession for leaders

Ring Finger= Intercession for family, friends and enemies

Pinky Finger= You pray for your needs and wants

A= Adoration

C= Confession

T= Thanksgiving

S= Supplication

Again, these are simple models for prayer, in the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer that will help your students talk to God concerning a variety of issues in life.

As I am studying with people, I give them Bible reading assignments. I do not give them too much, but just enough for them to start reading the Bible devotionally. I always start with the book of Mark, for it is easy to read, and it is an action-packed account of the life of Christ. After I give them a passage or scripture to read, I tell them to pray to God for understanding before they read. I then instruct them to read it slowly. Then I teach them to meditate on what they read. How can you do this? Think about the story fully. In your mind, imagine you are every person in the story. This allows the student to evaluate the emotions of the story, and they will quickly discover that the Bible is not a dead book. After I give them instructions, I then quickly model this process showing them how to do it, and demonstrating that it does not have to be an all-day process.

As we read about the life of Christ and learn what He said and how He walked, we will find our talk and walk changing. Notice the following quotes.