Sabbath School Week

Read for This Week’s Study

Dan. 2:20–23; Dan. 6:10, 11; Acts 20:36; Gen. 5:22–24; Exod. 33:15–23; Exod. 32:31, 32.

Memory Text:

“I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:1, 2, NKJV).

Imagine if you rarely spoke to your best friend or your spouse. Very soon the relationship would break down, and there would be a problem. In the same way, prayer is an essential part of having a close relationship with God. It is a crucial devotional habit, one that each of us needs and can strengthen. If we don’t pray often and continually, we will wander from the Lord sooner or later.

In the Bible, we learn about the lives of different individuals who prayed in different ways. We can step back and catch a glimpse into how their communion with God impacted their relationship with Him, how and for what we might also pray, and how their prayers changed the lives of others. It is true: our prayer life impacts not only ourselves but others as well.

Just like Bible study, this topic of prayer is both huge and important and much broader than what can be covered in just two weeks. 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. Let’s learn from their examples.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 9.

Supplemental EGW Notes

Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual relationship with our heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.
Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.
When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.
Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, “in all points tempted like as we are;” but as the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil; He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.
Our heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of heaven think of poor helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God’s heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little and have so little faith? The angels love to bow before God; they love to be near Him. They regard communion with God as their highest joy; and yet the children of earth, who need so much the help that God only can give, seem satisfied to walk without the light of His Spirit, the companionship of His presence.—Steps to Christ, pp. 93, 94.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Daniel is one of the great heroes of the Bible. We know the first story too (see Daniel 1): “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies” (Dan. 1:8, NKJV). Also, to Daniel and his three friends, “God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (Dan. 1:17, NKJV). The Bible describes Daniel as wise (Dan. 1:20; Dan. 2:14, 21, 23, 48) because the Spirit of God was in him (Dan. 4:9, 18; Dan. 5:14; Dan. 6:3), and he was greatly beloved by Heaven (Dan. 9:23, Dan. 10:11). These are some descriptors of a man who had a strong, abiding connection with God.

In Daniel 2, when King Nebuchadnezzar issued a death decree to all wise men in Babylon, Daniel sought God’s mercy concerning the secret of the king’s dream (Dan. 2:18). When God revealed the king’s dream to Daniel, he immediately prayed.

Read Daniel 2:20–23. Why did Daniel pray, and what can we learn from this prayer?

As the years passed by and kings rose and fell, Daniel remained an adviser to the kings and was described as distinguished “because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm” (Dan. 6:3, NKJV). “He was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him” (Dan. 6:4, NKJV). Despite fierce jealousy and evil plotting (Dan. 6:5–9) from his peers, Daniel remained ever constant and fearless in his prayer life.

Read Daniel 6:10, 11. What do these verses tell us about Daniel?

When faced with difficulty, Daniel prayed. Although the threat was against his life, he was consistent and persistent in prayer (three times every day, as was his custom), and predictable (at his open window three times a day as he prayed toward Jerusalem). His prayer was a physical act (he knelt) and focused on thanksgiving and supplication.

In light of a story like this, how weak are your excuses for not praying?

Supplemental EGW Notes

The prophet’s enemies counted on Daniel’s firm adherence to principle for the success of their plan. And they were not mistaken in their estimate of his character. He quickly read their malignant purpose in framing the decree, but he did not change his course in a single particular. Why should he cease to pray now, when he most needed to pray? Rather would he relinquish life itself, than his hope of help in God. With calmness he performed his duties as chief of the princes; and at the hour of prayer he went to his chamber, and with his windows open toward Jerusalem, in accordance with his usual custom, he offered his petition to the God of heaven. He did not try to conceal his act. Although he knew full well the consequences of his fidelity to God, his spirit faltered not. Before those who were plotting his ruin, he would not allow it even to appear that his connection with Heaven was severed. In all cases where the king had a right to command, Daniel would obey; but neither the king nor his decree could make him swerve from allegiance to the King of kings.
Thus the prophet boldly yet quietly and humbly declared that no earthly power has a right to interpose between the soul and God. Surrounded by idolaters, he was a faithful witness to this truth. His dauntless adherence to right was a bright light in the moral darkness of that heathen court. Daniel stands before the world today a worthy example of Christian fearlessness and fidelity.
For an entire day the princes watched Daniel. Three times they saw him go to his chamber, and three times they heard his voice lifted in earnest intercession to God. The next morning they laid their complaint before the king. Daniel, his most honored and faithful statesman, had set the royal decree at defiance. “Hast thou not signed a decree,” they reminded him, “that every man that shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?”
“The thing is true,” the king answered, “according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.”
Exultantly they now informed Darius of the conduct of his most trusted adviser. “That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah,” they exclaimed, “regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.” . . .
From the story of Daniel’s deliverance we may learn that in seasons of trial and gloom God’s children should be just what they were when their prospects were bright with hope and their surroundings all that they could desire. Daniel in the lions’ den was the same Daniel who stood before the king as chief among the ministers of state and as a prophet of the Most High. A man whose heart is stayed upon God will be the same in the hour of his greatest trial as he is in prosperity, when the light and favor of God and of man beam upon him. Faith reaches to the unseen, and grasps eternal realities.
Heaven is very near those who suffer for righteousness’ sake. Christ identifies His interests with the interests of His faithful people; He suffers in the person of His saints, and whoever touches His chosen ones touches Him. The power that is near to deliver from physical harm or distress is also near to save from the greater evil, making it possible for the servant of God to maintain his integrity under all circumstances, and to triumph through divine grace.—Prophet and Kings, pp. 540, 542, 545.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.