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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2026: Growing in a Relationship With God

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Reality Check

02 To Know God

03 Pride Versus Humility

04 The Role of the Bible

05 How to Study the Bible

06 Prayer Warriors

07 Practical Prayer

08 Having Faith

09 Sin, the Gospel, and the Law

I'm Cameron DeBasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Continuing now our lesson study about growing in a personal relationship with God.

This week we're on lesson 6, simply titled Prayer Warriors.

I was gonna say, tell us what it's about, but it's kind of self-evident, isn't it?

Well, it could be self-evident in that we're looking at people who were prayer warriors or we are the people who are prayer warriors Yeah, my guess is they're expecting both.

I know that's exactly what we're talking about We're gonna look examples of people who prayed and then hopefully applications for our own prayer life today.

Yeah, well I'll dovetail off of that and just say, you know, that the title already triggers me, and just for this reason that there's a mindset, and it creeps into places in our church, but this isn't how we typically use it, that there are certain people that are just really good prayers.

And so the rest of us, if we can just have them pray for us, like a priest kind of, or a venerated saint, and that's not what we're talking about here.

That's definitely, yeah, that's definitely the direction of this lesson is trying to establish every single person to have that, just like we had a devotional life about the Word of God, the other part of that is the prayer dynamic and every 1 of us should have that as part of our experience with Jesus.

And you're gonna tell us what our talking points are.

Father in heaven, as we study this lesson on prayer, as we discuss it, and as our Sabbath school teachers are preparing to teach and members to participate in this class.

I do pray, Lord, that the things that we take from this lesson would enrich our own personal prayer lives and help us as we continue to serve you in this world and prepare for the world to come.

Well, this week we lifted our introductory statement directly from Sabbath Afternoon, paragraph 3, well it simply says, this week we'll learn lessons from some of those in the Bible who prayed and showed us just how central prayer is to having a strong relationship with God.

So what you were saying about how there's not we're not talking about prayer specialists we're talking about prayer everyone so we all have that relationship.

Which leads us to talking point number 1, prayer is a practice.

It's not just a flight of fancy, it's devotional.

It's not planned, that just was spontaneous.

See the Lord's already in it, there we go.

And this comes basically from Sunday's lesson about what is prayer and we look at basically the life of Daniel as a great exemplar of prayer.

Second talking point, prayer involves both mind and body.

Obviously it's a thinking thing and a spiritual thing but what does your body have to do with prayer and we'll look at posture and those kind of things in prayer.

And finally, talking point number 3, it was a little bit alluded to in the lesson, and I just really kind of drew it out here, and that is God is our friend.

The purpose of a prayer life is to have a friend relationship with God that is unshakable to the very end.

The whole week it was kind of an undercurrent through this lesson.

And you know in the last week's lesson we talked about the devotional life and how studying the Word of God needs to be a habit in a certain time, in a certain place, and that's good.

Prayer also is an essential habit for every Christian.

It's not just the realm of some specialist, and it's not just a flight of fancy every now and then should be a consistent practice or spiritual habit in every Christian life.

So it's not just these, you know, I hit turbulence on my flight and I better pray.

This is something just like we talked about in our study of the word last week That should be a regular part of our experience and to be clear I do not enjoy flying at all every time that I wasn't gonna say it I know but I tell my wife jokingly that the Lord has me travel sometimes just to just make sure we're extra close You know, it's close to him.

But we look at Daniel and that's what Monday's lesson, I mean Sunday's lesson was all about is the faithful Daniel.

He's a great hero in the Bible and he had an active prayer life that was devoted to him, devoted to it.

So for instance in Daniel chapter 1, the very first thing we learned about Daniel is that he purposed in his heart, that as he was on his way to this unknown captivity, that he purposed in his heart not to defile himself, that he was going to remain pure and steadfast to God.

In his youth he made that determination and the rest of the book reveals that he stuck with that commitment, he purposed in his heart.

Daniel chapter 2, in a time of crisis Daniel prayed and then prayed again and thanks for the answer provided.

So when the crisis hit, this time it was the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and the death decree for all the wise men that would catch Daniel and his friends in that net too, that he prayed to God, the Lord revealed the vision to him, the dream to him, and then before he goes back to the king, he prays again in Thanksgiving.

Prayer was the bookend of all of his experiences in his life.

And of course last week we looked at Daniel chapter 6 how on 3 times a day he prayed facing Jerusalem in the open window and when the death decree this time came, it didn't move him an inch.

He went right back to his habit and as the Bible said, as a custom was, he prayed to the Lord in that way.

Yeah, I think it's important too that custom word because you don't see in Daniel 1 where he goes and prays.

You do see it in Daniel 2, but when you get to Daniel 6 it tells us it had always been his custom to pray 3 times a day.

So even though we didn't read about it in Daniel 1, it was happening in Daniel.

And yeah, just again making that point that this was a consistent part of his experience even in, It wasn't just because in Daniel 1 he was in this tough situation in Babylon or because he was or wasn't, same with Daniel 6, it was his custom from before the captivity ever came.

Absolutely, and an interesting thing, and I forgot to put it in my notes, but I'm gonna add it in a little bit here, Daniel chapter 9, you actually get to eavesdrop on 1 of Daniel's prayers.

It's that central to his life and what I'm, as I'm sitting here thinking, I'll just read just a few verses here and notice something here.

Daniel chapter 9 verse 1, In the first year of Darius the son of Azazel, the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books, the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem." So Daniel is studying the Bible.

Verse 3, then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes.

And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said and then it records the whole prayer that Daniel is studying his Bible to understand current events and see what the Lord had said about the timing he was thinking you know we've been here this long and didn't the Lord say it and he looked up Jeremiah and he's studying, he understands what it says but he wants to look for application and clearer understanding so he turns to the Lord in prayer.

He's having Bible study and prayer time and records his prayer and he's, it is a beautiful, if you've never studied it, read Daniel chapter 9.

It's a beautiful prayer and how the Lord responds to it, but Daniel is a great hero of prayer and devotional life, and we have it recorded for our edification.

Well that makes me think of the statement in the book Steps to Christ in the prayer chapter that says, he who does nothing but pray will soon cease to pray or his prayers will become a formal routine.

So you see Daniel acting out his prayers.

There's an interchange between his praying and his studying and his doing that is essential to keep a vibrant prayer life.

Well in Sunday paragraph 4 there are several important lessons.

Why don't you read that for us if you would.

Yeah Sunday paragraph 4 should be that last paragraph.

Says when faced with difficulty Daniel prayed.

Although the threat was against his life, he was consistent and persistent in prayer 3 times every day, as was his custom.

And predictable at his open window 3 times a day as he prayed toward Jerusalem.

His prayer was a physical act, he knelt and focused on thanksgiving and supplication.

So I like how it breaks down, like let's just look at what we've learned about Daniel and what are some things we yeah consistent, persistent, you know he's predictable and it involved a physical act, It wasn't just a mind thing every now and then.

He was devoted to it, and it's a great something for our emulation.

We can look at that and say, let's be like that.

Again, and I can't, the statement, I don't remember exactly where it is off the top of my head, but Ellen White talks about how our prayers need to include something about our actual life.

In other words, it's not just praying for the missionaries and the coal porters and whatever and this these big theme spiritual themes.

It's a conversation with the Lord and the Bible says about Jesus himself in the book of Hebrews that he cried out with strong cries and tears to him who was able to save him or deliver him from death.

So here's Jesus praying for himself, which, Jesus, that's selfish, isn't it?

But the whole idea, you're talking to God about your own experience, like that's the personal part of prayer.

You see the same thing in John 17, you know, we think of the prayer for unity, but he starts with, Father, you and I have a unity.

Like, we start with that relationship and then it grows out from there.

So there's nothing wrong with praying for yourself or the things you're going through.

In fact, that's what God calls us to do, is to have that friend connection with him, which we're gonna get to later on.

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Series

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2026: Growing in a Relationship With God

06 Prayer Warriors

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Reality Check

30m

02 To Know God

30m

03 Pride Versus Humility

31m

04 The Role of the Bible

30m

05 How to Study the Bible

29m

06 Prayer Warriors

29m

07 Practical Prayer

29m

08 Having Faith

28m

09 Sin, the Gospel, and the Law

28m

Sound Doctrine