Calling all Christians

Battling temptation

Note: This was designed to be a group bible study/prayer group, however, you can modify it to suit your needs. Also it was designed to take 45-60 minutes to complete.

•Open with prayer

•Remove all distractions (First off, I would like you to focus on what is on your mind today. Now ask God to completely take it from you so that you can completely focus on prayer.)

•Have everyone grab a bible (Now, I'd like everyone to grab an actual paper bible. Once you have one don't open it just yet.)

•Explain what will happen (Last week our youth pastor, talked about New Years resolutions for ourselves. He wanted us to find/pick one thing that we believed was holding us back from growing with God. Then he had us pray that God would help us turn away from those sins; to leave them behind.

This week I want us to focus on what we know can cause us to stumble, along with when we struggle the most, and how we can battle that problem. What the enemy, Satan, will use against you.)

•Have break off and individually study each of the following passages for several minutes. I'd recommend 1-2.5 minutes. All the while asking themselves how they apply to them specifically.

•List the passages to read one by one: Ephesians 6:10-18, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Corinthians 10:13, James 4:7, and James 1:13-15.

•Have them form small groups of 2-3 people each to discuss

•If time permits come back together as a group, and discuss what they thought about the verses. For example one of the people who could bare listening/watching me fail said this, "We were discussing why each piece of the armor of God was that piece. The helmet (Salvation) requires you to think about it, and protects your thoughts. The breastplate (Righteousness) protects your vital organs, and your heart. The belt (Truth) holds everything else together. With out truth you can't hold anything else together. How can you expect God to work through you if your life is always chaos, yet if you had peace (the shoes) then he could work through you. The shield (Faith) is mobile allowing you to direct towards the onslaught of attacks. Furthermore if your faith is small you have a smaller shield them if you have a lot of faith - allowing a larger shield.
Finally, the sword (the Spirit/Bible) really doesn't need an explanation."

•Collect prayer requests. Take as much time as needed. Remember people are more important that a time limit.

•Close with a prayer. The way my local Prayer Group, that I'm apart of, has one person 'dial' and another 'hang-up'. Though you can do it however you want.